dalliance

WOTD – 17 June 2010    

English

Etymology

From Middle English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ˈdalɪəns/
• (US) IPA: /ˈdæliəns/

Noun

dalliance (plural dalliances)

1. Playful flirtation; amorous play. [from 14th c.]
   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, Book V, chapter xi

     As in the season of rutting (an uncouth phrase, by which the vulgar denote that gentle dalliance, which in the well-wooded forest of Hampshire, passes between lovers of the ferine kind),

2. A wasting of time in idleness or trifles. [from 16th c.]
   • 1922, Michael Arlen, chapter 2/4/1, “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days^[1]:

     But, with a gesture, she put a period to this dalliance—one shouldn't palter so on an empty stomach, she might almost have said.

3. A sexual relationship, not serious but often illicit.

Synonyms

• (a wasting of time): dawdling, idling, trifling
• (playful flirtation): flirtation
• (sexual relationship): affair

Related terms

• dallier
• dally
• dallying

Translations

playful flirtation

• Bulgarian: флирт (bg) (flirt) m
• Dutch: flirt (nl),
• Finnish: flirtti (fi), flirttailu (fi), teerenpeli (fi), peli (fi)
• French: flirt (fr), conter fleurette (fr) , coquetage (fr)
• German: Liebesspiel (de) n

• Russian: флирт (ru) (flirt) m, заигрывание (ru) (zaígryvanije) n, кокетство (ru) (kokétstvo) n
• Scottish Gaelic: mànran (gd) m
• Spanish: coqueteo (es) m, requiebro (es) m, flirteo (es) m , galanteo (es) m

a wasting of time in idleness or trifles

• Bulgarian: губене на време (bg) (gubene na vreme)
• Dutch: verspilling (nl), tijdverlies (nl), gelanterfanter (nl)
• Finnish: ajan tappaminen (fi), notkuminen (fi), hengailu (fi), lorvailu (fi)

• French: baguenaudage (fr), perte de temps (fr), glandouillage (fr)
• German: Trödelei (de) f
• Russian: праздное времяпрепровождение (ru) (prazdnoje vremjapreprovoždenije)

A sexual relationship, not serious but often illicit

• Russian: интрижка (ru) (intrižka) f