a beautiful girl

[Nefertiti]

Is it OK to call a beautiful girl a swan or a peacock?

Do you call a beautiful girl a chick?
A chick, is considered offensive by many women. Why?

Which animal is considered an icon for a beautiful girl/woman in English?
Any ideas ?

Thanks

[banderas]

Originally Posted by Nefertiti

Is it OK to call a beautiful girl a swan or a peacock?

Do you call a beautiful girl a chick?
A chick, is considered offensive by many women. Why?

Think of the context. Who says that, why...and whether it's said with a playful smile or sneeringly. It all depends...

Which animal is considered an icon for a beautiful girl/woman in English?
Any ideas ?
Definitely a bird. Men also say totty.


Thanks

c

[Anglika]

Which animal is considered an icon for a beautiful girl/woman in English?
Any ideas ?
Definitely a bird. Men also say totty.

Highly offensive and to be avoided unless you are in a very louche and rough area.

[philadelphia]

I keep saying bird about a beautiful one. It might be too much informal, though.

[banderas]

Originally Posted by Anglika

Which animal is considered an icon for a beautiful girl/woman in English?
Any ideas ?
Definitely a bird. Men also say totty.

Highly offensive and to be avoided unless you are in a very louche and rough area.

Totty is offensive, it is beyond any disscussion. What about a bird?

[Anglika]

Originally Posted by banderas

Totty is offensive, it is beyond any disscussion. What about a bird?

Inoffensive on the whole.

[MrPedantic]

"Peacock" has connotations of "pride"; "swan" would suggest a long neck. Robert Graves talks about "The wild-swan-breasted, the rose-ruddy-cheeked / Raven-haired daughters of their admiration", in one of his poems; but he had unusual tastes.

The British fauna is poor in Mammalia; most of the related metaphors are uncomplimentary. Thus a mouse is quiet; a shrew is virulent; a vixen is vicious, as is a polecat; a badger is irritatingly persistent; squirrels compulsively hide things away; weasels are sneakingly malevolent. (Pine martens seem to have no attributes.)

Sometimes attractive women with a particular facial configuration are described as "feline"; but "catty" means "given to malicious comments". Audrey Hepburn was often called fawn-like, and consequently liked to be photographed with deer. A "fox" is an obviously sexually attractive female; the expression tends to be used by middle-aged men with sports cars.

MrP

[Nefertiti]

Hi MrP.

Is it OK to call a beautiful girl a swan or a peacock? Is it common usage?

2. Do you call a beautiful girl a chick?
A chick, is considered offensive by many women. Why?

Someone was questioning who says that? It's from Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary.

I wonder why it's offensive to most women?

3. totty Noun. Sexually alluring female or females, also applied, these days, to males. Originally a term for a prostitute in late 1800s. E.g."There was plenty of totty at the party."

A dictionary of slang - "T" - English slang and colloquialisms of the UK.


Thanks for the reply.

[MrPedantic]

Hello Nef,

1. No, it's not common usage; "peacock" suggests "pride", not "beauty"; "swan" might work in a poem, but would perhaps suggest "grace" or "whiteness", rather than "beauty".

2. No; "chick" can refer to any girl, irrespective of appearance. I would class it as "outmoded slang"; though "outmoded slang" is sometimes used for humorous effect.

I imagine it might be considered offensive because of its implications of small size, fluffiness, and general helplessness. (A "chick" is a baby bird.)

3. It would probably not be wise to call an attractive female "totty" to her face, unless you were confident that she would respond amicably. I imagine it might be considered offensive because of its focus on sexual characteristics.

Best wishes,

MrP