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Languages - terms of endearment | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5048 days ago 2237 posts - 6731 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 1 of 13 30 May 2013 at 3:50pm | IP Logged | |||||
An article about the Languages of love: 10 unusual terms of endearment was on the BBC website today. Interesting explanations of the meanings behind the terms.
What are some terms and explanations in your TL's or L1's? 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 4842 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 2 of 13 30 May 2013 at 4:30pm | IP Logged | |||||
I don't agree that "sweetheart" can be used in other languages. I can't imagine a Russian saying сладкое сердце. Although сладкий - sweet is often used. We have зайка (hare), котик - cat. In Russian we use deminutive-endearing suffixes a lot. People who learn English or French often complain that they can't translate them. There is a common myth in Russia that English is a poor language because it doesn't have productive emotional suffixes. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 4842 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 3 of 13 30 May 2013 at 4:34pm | IP Logged | |||||
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In French there is also "rat" - rat.
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4425 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 4 of 13 30 May 2013 at 4:48pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Interesting article, but I must say that I have never, ever heard anyone in Spain use "terrón de azúcar" - lump of sugar. I guess the most commonly used term is "cariño" (which as far as I know is originally a Galician diminutive of "caro", but has adopted as a noun with its specific meaning in Castillian).
Like in Russian, using diminutives as a form of endearment is quite common in Spanish too e.g. "hijito mío" (my little son), "maridito" (little husband) etc. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| cacue23 Triglot Groupie Canada Joined 4085 days ago 89 posts - 122 votes Speaks: Shanghainese, Mandarin*, English Studies: Cantonese | Message 5 of 13 30 May 2013 at 8:59pm | IP Logged | |||||
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The Chinese one is... kinda weird...
We would say a loved one's beauty is comparable to that of the Four Beauties in the history, but we would never call a loved one as "diving fish, swooping geese"... And there's also the hiding moon and ashamed flower...? Edited by cacue23 on 30 May 2013 at 9:00pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4614 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 6 of 13 30 May 2013 at 11:00pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Welsh: "cariad" - more or less "darling", or "beloved".
From Latin "carus,cara, carum"? Tempting to think so, but I don't know if it actually is. ... some Danish offerings Edited by montmorency on 30 May 2013 at 11:03pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4493 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 7 of 13 30 May 2013 at 11:09pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Probably also Celtic (and IE, thus related to Latin, but different). Breton has kaer,
which means the same (and also some other things). 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Tedmac278 Triglot Newbie United States Joined 4086 days ago 23 posts - 38 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish Studies: Estonian | Message 8 of 13 31 May 2013 at 8:00am | IP Logged | |||||
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In Argentina some men use "gordi" with their girlfriends as a term of endearment. It literally means "fatty".
Only country I'm aware of where you can get away with calling a woman fat! Edited by Tedmac278 on 31 May 2013 at 8:01am 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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