{"id":3441,"date":"2015-02-13T11:30:35","date_gmt":"2015-02-13T11:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eurotalk.com\/blog\/?p=3441"},"modified":"2020-02-11T13:19:33","modified_gmt":"2020-02-11T13:19:33","slug":"my-little-cabbage-terms-of-endearment-from-around-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/my-little-cabbage-terms-of-endearment-from-around-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"My Little… Cabbage? Terms of Endearment From Around the World"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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As Valentine\u2019s Day is slowly creeping up on us, it\u2019s time to learn how some of the other cultures express their love for one another. Some of them are sweet, some of them are funny but definitely all of them are very interesting to discover and-who knows?- maybe some of you can even apply them in day-to-day life if your partner comes from a different culture to yours. That would be a nice Valentine\u2019s Day surprise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Researching for this article was definitely fun, given that the idea started when a couple of us were having lunch together and decided to have a multicultural brainstorm about what we call our significant other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mostly, terms of endearment are pet-names or nicknames that we give to our loved ones (lovers, partners, friends, family) and they symbolise intimacy and closeness between two people. They are used in private or in specific situations but research has shown that they do not reveal the true relationship between two people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was interesting to find that some cultures (such as the Dutch<\/strong>) tend to have more of an abstract humour while the Spanish<\/strong> or Italian<\/strong> ones (generally considered the \u2018romantic\u2019 ones) have simpler or more straightforward expressions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The French<\/strong> like to associate their loved ones with food and call them \u2018petit chou\u2019 which is the equivalent of \u2018sweetheart\u2019 and means \u2018little cabbage\u2019. Another interesting one from the French is \u2018ma puce\u2019 which means \u2018my flea\u2019 and it is considered to come from historic times when removing fleas from one another was a pleasant and sometimes intimate private process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Staying in the area of food-related pet-names, \u2018chuchuzinho\u2019 is what you would call your love in Brazilian<\/strong> or Portuguese<\/strong>. In its original form, \u2018chuchu\u2019, it means squash, and the ending \u2018zinho\u2019 makes it a diminutive which emphasizes fondness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Japanese<\/strong> culture, it is considered very attractive when women have an oval, egg-shaped face and that is why one popular term is \u2018tamago gata no kao\u2019, which means \u2018an egg with eyes\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So we\u2019ve had vegetables and eggs, now it\u2019s time for some fruits \u2013 in Indonesian<\/strong>, \u2018buah hatiku\u2019 means \u2018the fruit of my heart\u2019 and it can be used for lovers but it is more often used for children nowadays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re more conservative and you prefer the classics, you may have in common more than you think with the Spaniards<\/strong>\u2013 \u2018cari\u00f1o\u2019 (honey), \u2018mi amor\u2019 (my love), \u2018coraz\u00f3n\u2019 (sweetheart),  \u2018guapo\/guapa\u2019 (handsome\/beautiful), or the more intense version, \u2018mi vida\u2019 (my life). Italians tend to stay in the normal boundaries as well with pet-names like  \u2018amore\u2019 (love),  \u2018tesoro\u2019 (darling), \u2018cuore mio\u2019 (my heart).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While some cultures choose to associate loved ones with delicious food or sweet words, others give them names inspired by wildlife. For example,  in Arabic,<\/strong> the image of a beautiful woman is often associated with gazelles and so, a man may say to a woman \u2018Laki uyounul ghazal\u2019 (you have the eyes of a gazelle).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps the most interesting one is the expression the Chinese<\/strong> use to show their loved one how much they mean to them. \u2018Chen yu luo yan\u2019 means \u2018diving fish swooping geese\u2019 and it is said to come from an old story that talked about the greatest beauty in Chinese history, a woman named Xi Shi. It is said that she was so beautiful that the fish in the pond forgot to swim when looking at her so they dived to the bottom. Likewise, it is said that the geese that flew over another great beauty called Wang Zhaojun were so struck by her beauty that they would forget to flap their wings and would end up swooping to the ground. Considering this, when a Chinese person wants to express his love for another, they say \u2018Chen yu luo yan\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Russia<\/strong>, they associate the person they love with the delicate dove, calling you \u2018golubchik\u2019 (\u0433\u043e\u043b\u0443\u0431\u0447\u0438\u043a) if you are a man, or \u2018golubushka\u2019 (\u0433\u043e\u043b\u0443\u0431\u0443\u0448\u043a\u0430) if you are a woman, both meaning \u2018little dove\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Germans<\/strong> tend to have quirky and cute phrases like \u2018Schnuckiputzi\u2019 (cutie-pie),  \u2018Zuckerschn\u00e4utzchen\u2019 (sugar\u2013lips) and the cutest one, \u2018Knutschipuh\u2019 (smootchie-poo).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They produce it, consume it and love it. Dutch<\/strong> people go as far as calling their women their favourite candy dropje (liquorice). Nationalism or tradition? They also use \u2018Mijn poepie\u2019 \u2013 a quirky Dutch term for \u2018my little poop\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do you call your loved one? Maybe it\u2019s a classical one or something that has meaning for the two of you \u2013 let us know in the comments. Or perhaps you\u2019ve heard some unusual ones during your travel \u2013 we\u2019d love to hear about that too!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Terms<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Happy Valentine’s Day!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Valentine\u2019s Day is slowly creeping up on us, it\u2019s time to learn how some of the other cultures express their love for one another. Some of them are sweet, some of them are funny but definitely all of them are very interesting to discover and-who knows?- maybe some of you can even apply them … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11,24,346],"tags":[1017,1018,345,182,184],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3441"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3441\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}