This chapter uses Félix Arnaudin’s notes towards a dictionary of the Gascon dialect of the Landes de Gascogne to explore everyday speech about the body. The dialect notes that Arnaudin carefully recorded in quotidian situations draw attention to a body focused on the legs and buttocks, discussed in terms of constant concern about stooping and bending. The language of the body was often violent and obscene, but could also be delicate and specific. Rich metaphors for body parts drew parallels between human exploitation and forestation. This was not a static folk language of the body, swept away by ‘modern’ ideas of the body, but an evolving way of talking about bodily experiences.
