It is hard to believe that there is a connection between the slang term for female breasts and the Black Death, the deadly bubonic plague pandemic that afflicted Europe between 1348 and 1350, killing 30% to 60% of Europe’s population.
(Pictured above is an illustration of the Black Death from the Toggenburg Bible, 1411. The buboes characteristic of the bubonic plague are quite evident).
This is the history of the use of the word “boobs”, meaning breasts, as presented in Cassell's Dictionary of Slang:
