bodice [M16th] The original form of bodice was bodies, the plural of body [OE]. This referred to an item of clothing for the upper body from the mid 16th century, when the pronunciation of bodies would have been like that of bodice. A similar thing happened with *dice, which is in origin the plural of die. A bodice ripper is a sexy romantic novel with a historical setting, often having a cover featuring a woman with revealingly torn clothes swooning in the arms of a masterful man. The term was not used until the start of the 1970s.