# 闺女



## yuechu

大家好！

I've heard the word 闺女 used quite a bit to mean "daughter". (Is it 北方话?) However, today, on a Chinese TV show, a man was calling a girl who is not his daughter 闺女 (She looks like she is in her twenties). Is this usage common? Is it kind of like calling a young guy 小伙子, but for a girl?
Thanks!


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## Skatinginbc

Context?

For example, 吃豆腐：
老色狼：閨女，讓爹親一個。
年輕女子：你別過來。 救命啊！

For example, endearment:
半老徐娘：嘿，鄰家閨女!
年輕女子：徐大娘，早！ 有事嗎？


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## yuechu

Hello, Skatinginbc! Thanks for your reply!
Oh, in this case, the person calling the girl 闺女 is like an uncle to her (but I don't think they are actually related). (It's definitely not like the first example you gave with the 老色狼!) I think I'd only heard this word used when someone was talking about their own daughter, but it looks like it is a common term for young women in general...? (usually when the people know each other well, and the person saying it is from an older generation?)


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## Eric Chengdu

yuechu said:


> (Is it 北方话?)


Yes, normally you hear it said by people from the north-east of China. 闺女 mainly has two senses, one is the synonym for daughter as you said; the other is what old people sometimes call young women, which is used as a term of endearment.


yuechu said:


> in this case, the person calling the girl 闺女 is like an uncle to her (but I don't think they are actually related). (It's definitely not like the first example you gave with the 老色狼!)


In this case, 老色狼 is a person who must be about the same age as her father, that's why he used 闺女 there. he "thought of" himself as her father and called her "my daughter", which sounds funny when used in this sexual harassment situation. 



yuechu said:


> but it looks like it is a common term for young women in general...? (usually when the people know each other well, and the person saying it is from an older generation?)


That's true in some rural areas of North-East China. But it seems a bit old fashioned, I haven't heard old people say that for a long time.


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## Panda678

yuechu said:


> 大家好！
> 
> I've heard the word 闺女 used quite a bit to mean "daughter". (Is it 北方话?) However, today, on a Chinese TV show, a man was calling a girl who is not his daughter 闺女 (She looks like she is in her twenties). Is this usage common? Is it kind of like calling a young guy 小伙子, but for a girl?
> Thanks!


闺女=女儿 例如：这是我闺女=这是我女儿
但是闺女有时候也可以表达一种昵称或亲切感     像路人看到一个漂亮女子或者你看到同事的女儿长得好看，这个路人或你可以说：这闺女长得真俊。/你闺女长得真好看。俊是东北话，真俊=真漂亮

对A YOUNG GUY，是说小伙子。例如，几年没见，你儿子长成大小伙子了。 
这小伙子长得真壮。
这小伙子长得真帅。 帅指男的长得好看，漂亮/俊指女的长得漂亮。


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## retrogradedwithwind

just like son, an old man could call a young man son with kindness and affection.


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## yuechu

It's very interesting! Thank you all for your replies!


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## albert_laosong

闺女 is a word that's quite old fashioned, used mainly by elderly people addressing young girls, or even young women up to their 30s.
Normally people under 50s don't use this word, but one exception is that when a person sees a friend with his/her daughter who is under 20, this person often call the young girl 闺女, *but* *not saying it to the girl herself*, but to the girl's father/mother, for example, 你这闺女都长这么大了， or 你这闺女养的真好，个头又高，长的又漂亮。

So when an elderly people says 闺女, he or she might use it to address the girl directly, it's like in English an old person often calls a young man "son". but he or she might also use it to refer to a young girl when talking about her with others.

But when a person not so old uses this word, it's almost always the latter scenariol.


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## Skatinginbc

Panda678 said:


> 路人看到一个漂亮女子..这个路人...可以说：这闺女长得真俊。


這「閨女」好像不是 (1) 女兒 或 (2) endearment, 而是 (3)「黃花閨女」的「閨女」(未出嫁的女子，年輕女子)。 「這閨女長得真俊」是說「這黃毛丫頭長得真俊」。


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## Lianxin

良家_閨女_


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## Panda678

Skatinginbc said:


> 這「閨女」好像不是 (1) 女兒 或 (2) endearment, 而是 (3)「黃花閨女」的「閨女」(未出嫁的女子，年輕女子)。 「這閨女長得真俊」是說「這黃毛丫頭長得真俊」。


日产生活中，这是我闺女等于这是我女儿。向人介绍时，常说这是我闺女=这是我女儿。 黄花闺女指未出嫁，但是只是闺女的话，没有必须是未出嫁的。像老人说：我有2个儿子，1个闺女（女儿）。都是可以的。


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## Twangling

闺女=lass, in the same old-fashioned way of the English word, and much more common in the northern China. I think it's fair to say 闺女 is the feminine counterpart of 小伙.

In fact, it most likely meant a young woman before it had the meaning of a daughter, since 闺 = a maiden chamber.


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