# otome



## Nikola

If one calls someone otome girl what do they mean?


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## masatom

Hello.
I think they mean a maiden girl, a virgin girl, or a beautuful girl.
I think which depends on the contexts.

Thanks.


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## Flaminius

Yes, it depends on the context.  So let's ask the thread starter for some.  :~)

So *Nikola*, where did you see _otome girl_ used?  Is it in a novel you read?  Or is it something you chanced to hear on the street?  Any which way, what is the language in which the whole text is uttered/written?  _Otome_ is a Japanese word to be sure but _girl_ is Englsh.  This is not a combination that turns up in either language so easily.  These tips of information is called background.

It is probably possible that the word is not the only thing you encountered in the same utterance.  If it comes off from a larger chunk of text, you should include 3 more sentences to the thread, so other posters can work on a more accurate explanation.  This is called context.

Now, a thread must have both context and background information explained along with the queried sentence itself.  For more details take a look at:
http://forum.wordreference.com/announcement.php?f=54&a=117
http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=207639

Cheers,
Flam


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## Nikola

Unfortunately my Japanese is not so good, so all I can say is the reference was someone dressed "gothic", I added the word girl.


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## Flaminius

So you read/heard it in a Japanese sentence?  Hmmm, we must settle with a somewhat vague explanation then.  _Otome_ is a flowery term referring to a young woman.

Cheers,
Flam


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## Nikola

Hi friends.
So the fact that she is gothic is not relevant?


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## Noamoxkaltontli

There is no direct relation between the girl being gothic and the word otome. She might have been called like that for a number of reasons.


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## lammn

Noamoxkaltontli said:


> She might have been called like that for a number of reasons.


 
Yeah, it could be due to a number of reasons.

I recalled in the on-line drama of the old forum (Noam, you know what I meant), I played the role of an _innocent_ girl and my knight referred me as "otome" 

So being innocent and not very old *cough* could be some of the attributes of an "otome".


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## MarcB

Here is another reference http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1580270,00.html



> Swallowtail is for women — specifically _otome_, the female version of the obsessive  fans of _manga_ comic book fans known as _otaku._ (A quick field guide to _otaku_: Hiro, the time-traveling Japanese mutant from the TV show _Heroes_ — _otaku_. Ken Watanabe, samurai actor — not _otaku_.) While _otaku_ tend to be anti-social sorts, their female counterparts actually like to spend time together, often on Otome Road in Tokyo's lively Ikebukuro district, where _manga_ stores cater to _otome._ The word roughly translates as "maidens," and their tastes tend to often run to medieval fantasies, which explains why some of them dress like they shop at Grimm's of Hollywood, in gothic dresses in whitest white or blackest black.


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## Nikola

Thanks everybody. So now I see the general meaning and I think the last post is what I was talking about. I guess this use is slang. Is it unfamiliar to most people? Does the name come from the road's name?


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## Flaminius

Hi,

乙女ロード is a nickname to a street after the women fandom that flock there for shopping.  Yes, 乙女 in the sense described in the Time article in slang in sense that people who do not subscribe to the otaku/anime/etc. subculture do not understand what it means.


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