dalliance

English

WOTD – 17 June 2010

Etymology

From Middle English daliaunce et al., from dalien (“to exchange pleasantries, to chat; to flirt”), from Old French dalier, dailer. By surface analysis, dally +‎ -ance.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈdalɪəns/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈdæli.əns/

Noun

dalliance (countable and uncountable, plural dalliances)

1. Playful flirtation; amorous play. [from 14th c.]

   Synonym: flirtation

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, chapter XI, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (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. An episode of dabbling.
3. A wasting of time in idleness or trifles. [from 16th c.]

   Synonyms: dawdling, idling, trifling

   • 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.

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

   Synonyms: affair, affairette, fling, liaison

Related terms

• dallier
• dally
• dallying

Translations

playful flirtation

• Bulgarian: флирт (bg) m (flirt)
• Czech: flirtování n, laškování n, koketování n
• Dutch: flirt (nl),
• Finnish: flirtti (fi), flirttailu (fi), teerenpeli (fi), peli (fi)
• French: flirt (fr), conter fleurette (fr), coquetage
• German: Liebesspiel (de) n, Flirt (de) m, Tändelei (de) f
• Greek: ερωτοτροπία (el) f (erototropía), χαριεντισμός (el) m (charientismós)
• Hungarian: flört (hu), flörtölés (hu), kacérkodás (hu), kokettálás
• Polish: flirt (pl) m, zaloty (pl) nvir
• 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 (fr), perte de temps, glandouillage
• German: Trödelei f, Zeitverschwendung (de) f
• Greek: χασομέρι (el) n (chasoméri)
• Russian: праздное времяпрепровожде́ние (prazdnoje vremjapreprovoždénije)

A sexual relationship, not serious but often illicit

• Czech: aférka f
• German: Seitensprung (de) m
• Russian: интрижка (ru) f (intrižka)
• Spanish: devaneo (es), amorío (es)

Anagrams

• allianced