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Cute?

Fluff :lta, 27. kesäkuuta 2005

Viestejä: 10

Kieli: English

Fluff (Näytä profiilli) 27. kesäkuuta 2005 17.07.25

I was just wondering what the Esperanto word for 'cute' is. Thanks in advance.

(^.^)

Mike59 (Näytä profiilli) 28. kesäkuuta 2005 17.41.30

1st meaning : intelligent = inteligenta, ruza

2nd meaning : lovely, nice = beleta, ĉarma, gracia

Go on studying !! I'm sure you'll improve if you use the dictionary (La vortaro) ... Enjoy yourself in Esperanto, just as I do !

JoyGerhardt (Näytä profiilli) 30. kesäkuuta 2005 0.19.27

Just a note, Mike, I don't think anyone uses 'cute' to mean 'intelligent' anymore. ridulo.gif

Machjo (Näytä profiilli) 2. heinäkuuta 2005 3.30.56

For lovely, nice:

aminda

or for intelligent:

inteligenta

trojo (Näytä profiilli) 2. heinäkuuta 2005 3.48.21

Just a note, Mike, I don't think anyone uses 'cute' to mean 'intelligent' anymore. ridulo.gif

I hear "cute" used to mean clever (in a sort of smart-aleck way) sometimes, e.g. "I was trying to be cute" (= I was trying to be witty). Ruza would probably be a better fit for that usage than inteligenta, in my opinion.

For physically cute I would probably go with karesema (cuddly) for something like a baby seal or a kitten and perhaps beleta (pretty) for a person.

Qwertie (Näytä profiilli) 18. heinäkuuta 2005 6.20.27

I don't think Esperanto has a word that expresses cute as in 'that baby is so cute'.  I think "cute" means something different when applied to postpubescent people, but again I don't think there's any word that catches the English nuance. Cxu ne?  La vortaro here gives "sprita" for "witty".  Meanwhile it says ruza means "smart, clever, cunny, sly" which certainly doesn't give the positive connotation of "witty".

Machjo, are you saying that aminda DOESN'T mean "loveworthy"?  For lovely and nice I would have used "bela" and "afabla", but since I am using the crappy vortaro here, maybe I've learned incorrect meanings for all of the words.

trojo (Näytä profiilli) 24. heinäkuuta 2005 21.48.52

I don't think there's any word that catches the English nuance.

The word "cute" means something slightly different to every English speaker, I'm sure. Ask a dozen native English speakers to explain the difference between "cute" and "pretty" and you will probably get a dozen different answers. Thus, attempting to capture the exact, precise meaning of that word in Esperanto (or any other language) is a futile task, because the meanings of words are so very rarely rigorously precise even in their own language, and because the words of two different languages almost never have a direct, one-to-one correspondance.

For me, even though it isn't specified in the dictionary, "cute"--both in the sense of "beautiful" (cute1), and in the sense of "clever" (cute3)--has a connotation of childishness. A sixteenth-century painting by some long-dead master can't be cute--even if it's beautiful--but a kindergartener's finger-painting could be cute. Teenagers may describe each other as cute, but since teens are still essentially children in my worldview, this is not a "usage problem" for me; they can be beautiful in their child-like way, and thus "cute". So for me, bela and beleta are fine for describing both beautiful babies and young-folk because it shouldn't have to be specified that children are beautiful in a child-like way. Kiel alie geknaboj povas beli sed beli geknabe?

So, if I were forced to choose or coin an Esperanto phrase that captured my own sense of "cute" most accurately, I would probably go with geknabe bela or infane bela something similar.

erinja (Näytä profiilli) 26. heinäkuuta 2005 21.42.30

relsqui (Näytä profiilli) 11. elokuuta 2005 13.32.24

sarcasmdude1292 (Näytä profiilli) 24. elokuuta 2005 23.17.11

Come on people, you totally made this simple question complicated.

Beleta.  Formed by adding -et- (small, weak, lesser) to bela (beautiful, lovely). Thus, beleta.

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