Talk:adorable

I think nl:aanbiddelijk is a bad translation of adorable. While it may be a literal translation that could maybe fit in some situations as a technical term, in daily parlance aanbiddelijk isn't used the way adorable is.

In English it's quite normal to say things like "oh, you're adorable" with connotations along the lines of "you're cute as a button". Or "you look adorable" as in "that frilly dress really suites you".

In Dutch the word aanbiddelijk is much heavier laden however. I think most people would never say it in daily conversation. For starters you can't say it to e.g. your daughter because it has sexual connotations (of the non-lewd kind, if that's possible, but still). But realistically you couldn't even say it to your girlfriend, because that would put her on a pedestal whereas she on the contrary wants to be close to you (one would hope).

You could normally only get away with it to characterise a third party, if she were conforming to the classical beauty ideal (rather than being cute or having boyish charm say) and even then it would sound somewhat grandiloquent. Normally the word seems almost reserved for mythological figures.

An exact translation may not exist, but here are some more realistic translations:

What an adorable girl - Wat een snoezig / schattig meisje

You look adorable (in that dress) - Je ziet er beeldig uit / je bent een plaatje

The most adorable kittens ever - De schattigste katjes ooit

Just to sketch you a picture.

request for locking
Jeeeeezus, just look in the history of the page; protect the page already. --Æ&#38;Œ (talk) 17:24, 31 May 2013 (UTC)