Spot the Frippet: squab.

 Squab is a rather unlovely word; but they're useful things, squabs. 

The only one I knew about before today was the squab that's a young pigeon:

photo by Karthik Easvur

but apparently a squab can be any unfledged bird.

Squab is also a name for a short plump person:

illustration by Fred Barnard

as well as a well-stuffed cushion:

photo by Scrumshus

or any other short and fat thing:

Photo by DAVID ILIFF. License: CC BY-SA 3.0

So, really, the puzzle with the word squab is how any of us have ever managed to get through a day without it.

Spot the Frippet: a squab. This word is probably of Germanic origin. There's a Swedish dialect word sqvabb that means flabby skin, and sqvabba is a fat woman (which is a bit odd, because you wouldn't expect a fat woman to have flabby skin). The German word Quabbe is a soft mass and the Norwegian kvabb is mud.