Lukewarm water

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

¡Lotería! Gracias, Sancho.
Entre "templado" y "tibio" sí encuentro la diferencia.

[Manuel]

Originally Posted by AngelicaDeAlquezar

Thank you, Manuel.
Most dictionaries tend to translate both words as "tibio", so that didn't help me at first either.

What do you mean "both"? Are you saying that dictionaries translate "warm" as "tibio"??

That would make me wonder HOW warm "caliente" really is. Do you only use that for something that is hot or close to it, or can something that is moderately warm (something you can hold your hand in, for example) be considered "caliente"? Take bath water, for example, in the Netherlands and in English speaking countries too, I think, they call this water "warm". It's not cold and it's warmer than lukewarm but it's not "hot". You can put your body in it without discomfort. "Hot" would be considered something that would burn your skin or close to it, I think.

Originally Posted by AngelicaDeAlquezar

¡Lotería! Gracias, Sancho.
Entre "templado" y "tibio" sí encuentro la diferencia.

So if "templado" means lukewarm. What does "tibio" mean then????

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by Manuel

So if "templado" means lukewarm. What does "tibio" mean then????

Well, you can have two words with the same meaning, as here:

tibio-bia adjetivo
1 agua/baño lukewarm, tepid
2 atmósfera/ambiente warm; el tibio sol de la mañana the warm morning sun
3 relación lukewarm; acogida unenthusiastic, cool, lukewarm; era un republicano tibio he was a halfhearted republican; poner tibio a alguien (familiar) to give somebody a dressing-down, to tear somebody off a strip (inglés británicofamiliar)


templado 1-da adjetivo
A
1 clima mild, temperate; zona temperate; temperatura warm
2 agua warm, lukewarm; comida lukewarm; frío, templado, caliente … ¡que te quemas! cold, you're getting warmer, hot … red hot!
B ánimo bold, courageous; tiene los nervios bien templados she has nerves of steel, she has very steady nerves
C (Colombia) (duro, difícil) tough

[Manuel]

Originally Posted by Perikles

Well, you can have two words with the same meaning, as here:

tibio-bia adjetivo
1 agua/baño lukewarm, tepid
2 atmósfera/ambiente warm; el tibio sol de la mañana the warm morning sun
3 relación lukewarm; acogida unenthusiastic, cool, lukewarm; era un republicano tibio he was a halfhearted republican; poner tibio a alguien (familiar) to give somebody a dressing-down, to tear somebody off a strip (inglés británicofamiliar)


templado 1-da adjetivo
A
1 clima mild, temperate; zona temperate; temperatura warm
2 agua warm, lukewarm; comida lukewarm; frío, templado, caliente … ¡que te quemas! cold, you're getting warmer, hot … red hot!
B ánimo bold, courageous; tiene los nervios bien templados she has nerves of steel, she has very steady nerves
C (Colombia) (duro, difícil) tough

Well, Perikles, that nicely brings up one of my major pet peeves with regard to learning foreign languages. I do not BELIEVE that two different words mean EXACTLY the same thing! There has got to be some kind of difference, surely?? Otherwise, why would there be two words for it and not just one? It makes no sense to me.

When I look at my own language (Dutch) I see slight nuances in meaning with different words that SEEM to mean exactly the same. But the differences are often very hard to put into words.

Take the words "fast" and "quick" in English, for example. They are often translated the same way, but I am pretty sure they are not 100% synonymous in meaning. But it's not always easy to determine what the difference IS. It may be just a feeling that native speakers have regarding the difference. Those subtle things are the hardest to master when it comes to foreign languages, if you ask me.

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by Manuel

I do not BELIEVE that two different words mean EXACTLY the same thing! There has got to be some kind of difference, surely?? Otherwise, why would there be two words for it and not just one? It makes no sense to me.

You are assuming that languages are both logical and consistent, and they clearly are not.

OK - it is perfectly possible for a language to have two words which have exactly the same meaning. For example: In German you have Orange for the fruit citrus sinensis, but you also have Apfelsine, which is identical. This arose from oranges being imported from Italy in the south, but oranges imported in the north came a different route to northern ports and were 'Chinese apples' then Apfelsine. This highlights the fact that a language is not a coherent whole but a combination of dialects where meanings shift and change.

You must also consider that there is a subjective element to the meaning of each word, as well as differences in dialect, so that (maybe) the two words with overlapping meanings mean slightly different things in different areas.

Is there a difference between tepid and lukewarm? You may think so, but there is no consensus and there may be regional differences, so that difference may be undefinable or unprovable.

Human languages are not scientific, and that's part of their charm. Well, I think so.

[poli]

Lukewarm and warm mean just about the same thing but under certain circumstances they are opposites
example:
a lukewarm response
a warm response

Does it work the same way in Spanish?

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

@Manuel: Vocabulary is rich in every language. There are words that in certain cases can be synonymous and in others they can even contradict themselves. It's all about context and knowing what they mean. You will very rarely find a word that translates meaning for meaning from one language into another.

@Poli: There is the same difference if you say:
- una respuesta cálida (friendly)
- una respuesta tibia (indifferent)
(We wouldn't say "una respuesta templada" by the way)

[wrholt]

I agree with others: when describing the temperature of water, "lukewarm" water feels neither cool nor warm to the touch, while "warm" water feels warm to the touch and "cool" water feels cool to the touch.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

Thank you all for enriching this thread.