A jocular description of fighting middle-aged spread, named for an actual battle between the Allies and German forces during World War II. The last great German drive of the war, it began in December 1944, when Nazi troops “bulged” through the Allied lines deep into Belgium. It took a month for the Allies to drive back the German forces. The current cliché was born in the second half of the 1900s, when diet-conscious Americans deplored the seemingly inevitable advance of pounds that comes in advancing years. A New York Times review of the one-woman play by Eve Ensler, The Good Body, had it: “. . . Ms. Ensler . . . [was] soliciting the experiences of women caught up in similar battles of the bulge” (Nov. 16, 2004).