dalliance

English

WOTD – 17 June 2010

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdalɪəns/
• IPA^(key): /ˈdæli.əns/

Noun

dalliance (countable and uncountable, plural dalliances)

1. Playful flirtation; amorous play. [from 14th c.]
   • 1749, Henry Fielding, chapter XI, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book V:

     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, “2/4/1”, in “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

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

Related terms

• dallier
• dally
• dallying

Translations

playful flirtation

• Bulgarian: флирт (bg) m (flirt)
• Dutch: flirt (nl),
• Finnish: flirtti (fi), flirttailu (fi), teerenpeli, peli (fi)
• French: flirt (fr), conter fleurette (fr), coquetage
• German: Liebesspiel (de) n
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Greek: ερωτοτροπία (el) f (erototropía), χαριεντισμός (el) m (charientismós)
• Hungarian: flört (hu), flörtölés, kacérkodás, kokettálás
• Russian: флирт (ru) m (flirt), заи́грывание (ru) n (zaígryvanije), коке́тство (ru) n (kokétstvo)
• Scottish Gaelic: mànran 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 (gubene na vreme)
• Dutch: verspilling (nl), tijdverlies (nl), gelanterfanter
• Finnish: ajan tappaminen, notkuminen (fi), hengailu, lorvailu (fi)
• French: baguenaudage, perte de temps, glandouillage
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• German: Trödelei f
• Greek: χασομέρι (el) n (chasoméri)
• Russian: праздное времяпрепровожде́ние (prazdnoje vremjapreprovoždénije)

A sexual relationship, not serious but often illicit

• Russian: интрижка (ru) f (intrižka)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Spanish: devaneo (es), amorío

Anagrams

• allianced