“Fat In Languages”

1. On August 8th, 2010 at 12:16 am Jill Says:

   The word “fat” as in fat acceptance would be “dick” in German. “fett” works as a decription for the fat content of cheese for example, or as a noun (with a capital F) for something like margarine.
   If you call someone “fett” here, it is definitely an insult, the neutral (as neural as fat is in English at least) description is dick.

   Also in Spanish, the describing adjective for people is gordo/gorda.

2. On August 8th, 2010 at 10:13 am Not Blue at All Says:

   Yes, I realize this now. To be honest, I just used freetranslation.com for the words. They don’t offer an option on what uses the words are for. Thank for reading/commenting.

3. On August 8th, 2010 at 3:02 am Claudia Says:

   A native speaker would know much better than I, but I think that “rasva” in Finnish is more for the substance of fat – a fat person would more likely be described as “lihava”, which means something like meaty or fleshy. But I’m just a very beginning student, so I’m not positive.

   Nifty list!

4. On August 8th, 2010 at 5:05 am Renatus Says:

   A random flyby point of note re: Finnish —

   ‘Rasva’ only refers to the fat in things, like in food. It’s ‘lihava’ to refer to a person or animal who is fat. 🙂

5. On August 8th, 2010 at 5:36 pm T Says:

   Japanese also has a whole ton of words for fat. I think the one you used is more for fat in terms of food than people (though the first kanji in that word does show up in some obscure words for fat people). The word I learned in beginning Japanese for fat people or fatness in relation to people was the adjective 太い (futoi). Related terms are 太っちょ (futoccho, fat person), 太り肉 (futorijishi, corpulent, fat, or chubby), and 太る (futoru, to gain weight, to become fat). You can check out some of the other Japanese words related to fat and fatness here: http://www.df.lth.se/cgi-bin/j-e/jis/dosearch?sDict=on&H=PW&L=E&T=fat&WC=none

   Hopefully someone else with a greater understanding of the language than mine will pop up and explain better, but I figured I would try it out.

   Also, if anyone is curious, I think the Irish word for fat (as in fat people) would be ramhar.

6. On August 9th, 2010 at 8:13 am Not Blue at All Says:

   Yes, thank you. After posting I received several comments in regards to the use of “fat” in it’s various forms. I meant this as merely a visual exercise in the languages and fat…sadly the web site I used did not allow for more specification. I appreciate your input though. My husband will be interested in the Japanese info you’ve posted.

7. On August 9th, 2010 at 10:24 am ladyjaye Says:

   In French, gras is rather used to describe the fat content (say, in food), while the actual word to say that someone is fat is “gros” or “grosse” (if it’s a woman).

8. On August 9th, 2010 at 10:24 am Not Blue at All Says:

   Thanks.

9. On August 11th, 2010 at 12:29 pm Pauli Says:

   In Polish “TÅ‚uszcz” is also used to describe the substance, to say someone is fat one needs to use the words gruby (M) or gruba (F). One could also use “TÅ‚usty/tÅ‚usta”, which is, as you can see, directly related to “tÅ‚uszcz”, however, this is more “insulting”. Gruby is more neutral, kind of like “Fett” and “Dick” in German 🙂

10. On August 11th, 2010 at 1:51 pm Not Blue at All Says:

    Thanks so much.

11. On August 11th, 2010 at 2:29 pm Renatus Says:

    Ah — I didn’t want to criticize the exercise, I think it’s neat! I just thought I’d chip in about the difference, since not a lot of random passers-by know Finnish.

    It’s interesting how many langauges have different words for the fat in food vs. the fat on bodies in common, everyday usage, but English conflates the two.

12. On August 11th, 2010 at 2:37 pm Not Blue at All Says:

    No worries. I do appreciate it. I used that silly freetranslation.com not realizing it only had one type of “fat.”