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Dr. Fraud (Darja M)'s avatar

Coming from a culture where we have the tu/vous distinction, it was so uncomfortable to address everyone with "you"...just felt really impolite. As for nicknames, I have gotten different ones, mostly from family...the most recent being "Neman" (it means "beast") and I am totally fine with it 😂

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Brooks's avatar

In South Korea, a fetus gets a nickname, often an absurd one, so that one can, in effect, talk to the baby or refer to it, without knowing anything about it. The nicknames I've heard are cute and silly, but seem to emphasize the fun side of pregnancy.

Germans also have the Du/Sie divide usually broken when the older of two people suggests that 'wir duzen'. A younger person can ask permission to use Du, which is sometimes denied.

As for Jules et Jim, Truffaut was famous for his witholding the right to 'tutoyer', even from his wife.

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Deanna Kreisel's avatar

Fascinating!

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Melissa Cole Essig's avatar

Ah, for my teens and twenties, when, every few years, some random friend would spontaneously decide to call me Mel. The fact that they chose to do so without being invited (or having anyone else setting the example) and that they all settled on the same odd nickname made it feel particularly intimate, like I'd been truly welcomed into a close friendship. As I think about it now, since entering my thirties, and for the decades since, no one has ever called me anything but Melissa (or Professor or Mom, but those have their own universes of intimacy or lack thereof). Is it a sign of age, the end of others lovingly nicknaming me?

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Deanna Kreisel's avatar

For some reason I am just seeing this, Mel! :-) Yes, I know what you mean -- the spontaneously given nickname can be really nice, intimate in a good way. There are many subtleties to this question that I haven't even begun to parse....

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