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"Chouchou" is Carla Bruni's term for her husband, the former French President
Nicolas Sarkozy. Samantha Cameron was heard on microphone saying "I love you
babe" to her man, Prime Minister David Cameron - and Michelle Obama described
the most-tweeted picture ever (above) with the words, "That's my honey giving
me a hug."
Some terms of endearment can be used in many languages - "baby", "angel" and
"sweetheart" for example. But some don't travel as well as you might think. If
you call a French person "honey" ("miel") he or she may take it as a
unflattering comparison with a sticky mess.
And how would you react if someone called you a cauliflower, a flea, or a baby
elephant? Here is a quick guide to the language of love around the world -
dominated by metaphors from cookery and the animal kingdom - with contributions
by language coach Paul Noble.
1. Little cabbage (French)
Petit chou
"Chou" (cabbage) is the French equivalent of "sweetheart". "Chou" conveys the
idea of being small and round and is used to describe French puff pastry, often
enjoyed as "chou a la creme". "Chou" is said to resemble a baby's or child's
head too. Over the years, many French children have been told that boys were
born in cabbages and girls in roses. You can double it too - "chouchou" is a
standard translation for "darling".
2. Pumpkin (Brazil / Portuguese)
Chuchuzinho
"Chuchu" is the word for "squash" - but strangely similar to the French
"chouchou". Could a French word have sneaked into Portuguese as a fancy way to
refer to a loved one (even though it refers to a different vegetable)? The
ending "zinho", meaning "little", emphasises fondness.
Print by Kitagawa Utamaro A 19th Century print by Kitagawa Utamaro
3. Egg with eyes (Japanese)
Tamago kato no kao
In Japan, women are frequently called "an egg with eyes" by those who love
them. This is a great compliment, as having an oval, egg-shaped face is
considered very attractive in Japanese culture - you can see this in Japanese
paintings through the ages.
4. Lump of sugar (Spanish)
Terron de azucar
Like "honey" in English, sweet foodstuffs of one kind or another make popular
terms of endearment in numerous languages. This popular one in Spanish, "terron
de azucar" also means "sugar cube". Apparently, it rates highly on the
"tweeness" scale, so use sparingly.
5. Fruit of my heart (Indonesian)
Buah hatiku
Although the term can be used romantically, featuring in love songs and poems,
today it is most often used to express affection for children. Advertisers use
the term to appeal to family-oriented customers, especially young middle-class
couples: "The best gift/food/product for 'the fruit of your heart'". You will
also find the term in almost all books and articles on parenting, and it
frequently appears as the name of organisations focusing on children, including
a hospital near Jakarta.
6. My flea (French)
Ma puce
"Ma puce" is roughly equivalent to "sweetie" in English. One theory suggests
that it could be linked to the historic relationship shared by humans and fleas
- in times past, removing fleas from one another became a one-to-one grooming
activity, and is alleged to have been a pleasant and sometimes intimate
process.
Dorcas gazelle in Kuwait zoo
7. Gazelle (Arabic)
Ghazal
Classical Arabic poetry abounds with the imagery of beautiful gazelles (ie
women, metaphorically speaking). There are numerous references to the "lethal
spears" of a beautiful woman's gaze. If you believe the poets, hunters (ie men)
can die of love-sickness after a single glance from a gazelle. Today too, a man
may say to a woman, "You have the eyes of a gazelle" ("Laki uyounul ghazal").
This may imply that he has fallen under her spell sooner than she has his.
8. Little elephant (Thai)
Chang noi
Elephants are the dearest of animals to Thai people. They are supposed to bring
good luck, white elephants especially. The elephant symbol might derive from
the Hindu God Ganesh reflecting the great influence that Indian culture exerted
across this region. Elephants so captured the nation's heart that they once
became an emblem on the country's flag.
9. Diving fish swooping geese (Chinese)
Chen yu luo yan
There is a story surrounding the greatest beauty in Chinese history, a woman
named Xi Shi. It's said that she was so beautiful that when she looked at fish
in a pond, the fish were so dazzled by her beauty that they forgot to swim and
gradually dived to the bottom. Likewise, it was said that when geese flew
overhead, they were so struck by her beauty that they would forget to flap
their wings and would end up swooping to the ground. Because of this, to this
day, when a young Chinese man is in love with a Chinese woman, he may indicate
that, to him, she is as beautiful as Xi Shi. To do this, he will say just four
words: "Diving fish, swooping geese".
10. Little dove (Russian)
Golubchik (masc) / golubushka (fem)
Pushkin used the word "little dove" to refer affectionately to his elderly
nanny in the lines of one of his best-known poems, but she could equally have
used it to refer to him, when he was a child (and probably did). As a term of
endearment it dates back at least to the Song of Songs, in the Old Testament
("O my dove... let me see thy countenance"), originally written in Hebrew. The
Slavonic translation of the Bible had a profound influence on shaping the
Russian language, so the Russian usage could have Biblical roots.
Language coach Paul Noble and consultants to Collins Dictionary contributed to
this article. Paul Noble is the author of the Destination language courses (in
Italian, French, and Spanish), published by Collins.