Why would a woman be offended if I compared her to a "wood nymph"?

[Dollypop]

Posted: 10/1/10 at 7:34pm

A female friend of mine lost quite a bit of weight and I tried to compliment her. Instead, she was offended.

[Q]

Posted: 10/1/10 at 7:43pm

Maybe she thought you were calling her a 'nympho' - as in maniac.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 10/1/10 at 7:45pm

Well, I wasn't. She'd lost a lot of weight (intentionally) and looked particularly svelte.

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 10/1/10 at 8:49pm

What - exactly - did you say? And what was her response?

[StockardFan]

Posted: 10/1/10 at 8:50pm

I wouldn't find that offensive.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 10/1/10 at 9:11pm

Wood nymph = dirty unwashed hippie

Actually, she might not wanted people to acknowledge the weight loss because she's not comfortable yet.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 10/1/10 at 10:33pm

By definition:
"A nymph in Greek mythology is a minor nature goddess typically associated with a particular location or landform. Other nymphs, always in the shape of young nubile maidens, were part of the retinue of a god, such as Dionysus, Hermes, or Pan, or a goddess, generally Artemis.[1] Nymphs were the frequent target of satyrs. They live in mountains and groves, by springs and rivers, also in trees and in valleys and cool grottoes. They are frequently associated with the superior divinities: the huntress Artemis; the prophetic Apollo; the reveller and god of wine, Dionysus; and rustic gods such as Pan and Hermes."

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 10/1/10 at 11:45pm

You didn't answer my question. Maybe it was the way you phrased it, or Q is right and she isn't well-educated, and took it as an insult.. Or maybe she's well-educated and was thinking of the nymph that turned herself into a tree to avoid rape, and didn't like that association.

People take offense at the oddest things.

eta the story: Acantha was a beautiful nymph with the misfortune to be loved by someone she didn't love back. Apollo was the culprit in this case. He "loved" the nymph so much he tried to rape her. The nymph fought back, scratching the Sun God's face. As a result, the little nymph was transformed into the acanthus tree, a "sun-loving" but thorny plant. Updated On: 10/1/10 at 11:45 PM

[danmag]

Posted: 10/2/10 at 8:17am

Hmmm. I had lost a few pounds recently as well. Someone asked me if I had cancer.

I would have been much less offended by the wood nymph comment.

[best12bars]

Posted: 10/2/10 at 8:21am

Nymph loads vs. lymph nodes, danmag.

[danmag]

Posted: 10/2/10 at 9:20am

LOL Besty!! :)

Posted: 10/2/10 at 11:40am

Often people get confused when words that mean different things sound sort of alike and unjustly take offense. I'd try to be more niggardly with your compliments.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 10/2/10 at 12:11pm

RACIST!

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 10/2/10 at 1:07pm

Is there a chance that your compliment might have sounded like "You look great NOW" with a clear implication that she looked awful before? Sometimes it's not what we say but how we say it.

Posted: 10/2/10 at 4:28pm

Perhaps she thinks of you as a sexagenarian and the attention made her uncomfortable?

[Dollypop]

Posted: 10/2/10 at 5:56pm

She's only four years my junior.

I told her that her weight loss made her look as svelte as a wood nymph.

We had coffee this morning and she admitted to me that she didn't know what the words "svelte" and "wood nymph" were. She's an intelligent woman and reads quite a bit. She just never came across those terms before. She also admitted that she had though the French word "chic" was pronounced "chick" until she heard me use it a few years ago.

Posted: 10/2/10 at 8:10pm

She does sound stupid. Dumb enough even to be a Carol Channing fan, maybe.