'loyal' vs 'faithful'

[Mehrgan]

Hi,
Can the word 'loyal' be equally used for married couples too? Any difference in meaning, please?

 

[BobK]

I feel they're different in that context. Bill Clinton was a loyal husband, as he'd never leave Hillary. But no-one could call him faithful! The word 'faithful' has a special meaning where sex is involved.

b

 

[5jj]

I feel they're different in that context. Bill Clinton was a loyal husband, as he'd never leave Hillary. But no-one could call him faithful! The word 'faithful' has a special meaning where sex is involved

And Hillary was a very loyal wife. We don't know whether she was faithful.

 

[Allen165]

I don't see how one can be loyal to one's partner and yet cheat on him/her. To me, that's not being loyal at all.

 

[Tdol]

Can't you stand by them in other ways? Infidelity is one sort of betrayal, but that doesn't necessarily exclude other loyalties.

 

[BobK]

I don't see how one can be loyal to one's partner and yet cheat on him/her. To me, that's not being loyal at all.

The point is that some people might choose to use the word 'loyal' as meaning something different from 'faithful' in this context. You might not be one of those people. But using language (any natural language) involves coming to terms with the possibility that different people use different words differently. ;-)


b

 

[Allen165]

The point is that some people might choose to use the word 'loyal' as meaning something different from 'faithful' in this context. You might not be one of those people. But using language (any natural language) involves coming to terms with the possibility that different people use different words differently. ;-)


b

I can live with that, but how do you know Bill's been a loyal husband? You're obviously not talking about sexual loyalty, so in what other ways has he been loyal to her?

As far as I know, they're still married, which makes me wonder why you wrote "was" instead of "has been."

 

[BobK]

We're no longer discussing language. Excuse me, I'm leaving you all to it. ;-)

b