Lukewarm water

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

I've heard some hair stylist on TV saying the hair should be washed "with lukewarm water; not hot, not cold".

I understand "warm" is already "not hot, not cold", so what's the nuance in meaning if you say "lukewarm" instead of just "warm"?

[poli]

Lukewarm is that imaginary and arbitrary midpoint between hot and cold.
Warm can be nearly hot or almost cool, but lukewarm is right in the middle.

[laepelba]

Another word for lukewarm is tepid. I don't like tepid bathwater.

Lukewarm is also a descriptive word that can be used figuratively similarly to the way that you would use "hot" and "cold", meaning halfway between hot and cold. He had a lukewarm response to my idea of going to the play. ("lacking enthusiasm")

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

I see now, thank you both!

Apart from the figurative use, can it also be applied to something else than fluids, like the weather or a gas or another substance? (like in "lukewarm weather", "lukewarm iron", "lukewarm bed"??)

[laepelba]

Originally Posted by AngelicaDeAlquezar

I see now, thank you both!

Apart from the figurative use, can it also be applied to something else than fluids, like the weather or a gas or another substance? (like in "lukewarm weather", "lukewarm iron", "lukewarm bed"??)

Well, I've never heard it used with "weather", but when I googled it, I found it in a Scottish news source in a quote from a frisbee player. That's the only place I could find it....

As far as other uses, I just had a conversation with my mother (who is a voracious reader and has excellent grammar) and we agree that you can be flexible with the use of the word lukewarm. It wouldn't necessarily sound strange to say "lukewarm iron" or "lukewarm bed".

As I think about this, when you're using the word figuratively, it has more of a negative, glass-half-empty sense as opposed to just warm, which I would say has a more positive, glass-half-full sense.
- His poetry received warm applause. (The audience liked it.)
- His poetry received lukewarm applause. (The audience was more enthusiastic about the previous readings.)

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

Thank you, Lou Ann, very useful!

[Manuel]

Actually, I think that lukewarm means "tibio" in Spanish. It's water (for example) that is neither warm nor cold. You can simply think of it in terms of being on a temperature scale (from low to high):

cold, cool, lukewarm, warm, hot.

That is not the same as saying that lukewarm is in the middle between hot and cold. More accurate would be to say that it's temperature is lower than "warm" but higher than "cold" or "cool".

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

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

[chileno]

Correct. But in Chile, tepid or lukewarm water translates as "quitado al hielo o del hielo" I don't recall which one now, I don't know why, but that's it.

[Sancho Panther]

En nuestra casa es "Templado".

[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.