Talk:big girl

RFV discussion: April–June 2020

This entry has survived Wiktionary's verification process (permalink).

Please do not re-nominate for verification without comprehensive reasons for doing so.

---

big girl

1. (idiomatic, informal) An adult female.
2. (informal) An older girl or grown-up girl; a girl who is no longer an infant.

   You can tie your own shoelaces – you're a big girl now.

RFV sense 1, not to be confused with sense 2 (which could in certain circumstances be used to refer to an adult, if the point is that they should e.g. act like a grown-up, or be capable of doing so). Previously discussed at Wiktionary:Tea_room/2020/April#big_girl. Mihia (talk) 10:47, 28 April 2020 (UTC)

I'd say just remove sense 1 and retain sense 2, which covers the sense 1 situation. (The song "Big Girls Don't Cry" is now playing in my head.) — SGconlaw (talk) 11:22, 28 April 2020 (UTC)

It is somewhat unfortunate that in the usage example for sense 2 it is not clear whether tie own’s own shoelaces is used in the literal sense or meant to be figurative.^[1][2][3]  --Lambiam 13:38, 28 April 2020 (UTC)

Aha, that's the beauty of it! Mihia (talk) 23:20, 28 April 2020 (UTC)

I question whether this is an RFV or an RFD. I think it would be pretty easy to come up with three cites for each meaning - three where it is used for an adult, and three where it is used for an older child - but if I do so, won't @Equinox just accuse me of falling into what he has called the kiwima trap? Kiwima (talk) 14:57, 28 April 2020 (UTC)

@Kiwima: If sense A and B each have three citations and all of those citations could equally belong under A or B then either we need less ambiguous cites or we need to merge the senses. Equinox ◑ 15:11, 28 April 2020 (UTC)

Every one of these senses is SOP, should be an RFD. - TheDaveRoss 15:47, 28 April 2020 (UTC)

True. — SGconlaw (talk) 16:13, 28 April 2020 (UTC)

I think the definition for which I added cites is not SoP (I could be wrong.), but all the others seem very suspect to me. We are a lonely lemming at OneLook. DCDuring (talk) 23:18, 4 May 2020 (UTC)

rfv-PASSED Kiwima (talk) 00:08, 5 June 2020 (UTC)