3 ms·

What is fil?

vram22 4y ago
Father-in-law. Like BIL for Brother-in-law. Apropos, I've always wondered where the terms gf and bf, for girlfriend and boyfriend, came from, i.e. the West, or India. Wonder, because many such short forms come from or are unique to Indian English.
- titanomachy 4y ago
  gf and bf widely used in the west
  - vram22 4y ago
    Known, before. See my reply to raverbashing.
- dlivingston 4y ago
  I mean, acronyms are pretty common to the modern English language in general. Is what you're talking about a bit different? Can you dive in a bit?
  - vram22 4y ago
    Sure they are common in modern English. (I only speak that version, being modern myself ;) [1] >Is what you're talking about a bit different? Can you dive in a bit? Sure I can. Thanks for asking. Yes, I was talking about something different. But I seem to have been misunderstood by a few people in this subthread. No worries, it happens. Human languages are not perfect, nor are they always unambiguous. Nor are humans perfect, in writing or interpretation. :) I wrote the comment casually, so did not think to check how it might be understood differently by others. When I said >many such short forms come from or are unique to Indian English. , I meant, first of all, just "some", because "many" does not necessarily mean "most", let alone "all". It just means "many", for some value of "many". It does not necessarily imply a comparison or relative valuation, such as, "many" relative to the total number of acronyms. (5000 is a big number on its own, but not compared to 5 million.) And secondly, I had first come across usage such as gf and bf in emails between Westerners and Indians known to me, some 15-odd years ago, and Indian (techie) English has many :) possibly unique acronyms such as o/p for output, i/p for input, so I thought at the time, that gf and bf might be Indian English acronyms, having not come across them in general Western English usage, at least before that. [1] An arcane reference to an Asterix comic issue, maybe Asterix in Rome (or Italy), where they talk about learning modern languages such as Latin :)
  - highwaylights 4y ago
    I don't know this, but I think the parent maybe meant the term boyfriend/girlfriend rather than the acronym? It is strange to parse given that it means "person that I'm non-platonically involved with" (i.e. not simply friends).
    - vram22 4y ago
      Your second paragraph raises an interesting and seemingly valid point, but your first paragraph gets me wrong: I did mean the acronym, i.e. gf or bf (and some other such ones; not all, by a long chalk). Anyway, thanks for giving me the benefit of the doubt. :)
- raverbashing 4y ago
  It's the obvious acronym for those words
  - vram22 4y ago
    Yes, that's obvious to me too. My point was not whether it was common, but where it came from.
yesseri 4y ago
Father-in-law

What is fil?

Father-in-law. Like BIL for Brother-in-law. Apropos, I've always wondered where the terms gf and bf, for girlfriend and boyfriend, came from, i.e. the West, or India. Wonder, because many such short forms come from or are unique to Indian English.

titanomachy 4y ago
gf and bf widely used in the west
- vram22 4y ago
  Known, before. See my reply to raverbashing.
dlivingston 4y ago
I mean, acronyms are pretty common to the modern English language in general. Is what you're talking about a bit different? Can you dive in a bit?
- vram22 4y ago
  Sure they are common in modern English. (I only speak that version, being modern myself ;) [1] >Is what you're talking about a bit different? Can you dive in a bit? Sure I can. Thanks for asking. Yes, I was talking about something different. But I seem to have been misunderstood by a few people in this subthread. No worries, it happens. Human languages are not perfect, nor are they always unambiguous. Nor are humans perfect, in writing or interpretation. :) I wrote the comment casually, so did not think to check how it might be understood differently by others. When I said >many such short forms come from or are unique to Indian English. , I meant, first of all, just "some", because "many" does not necessarily mean "most", let alone "all". It just means "many", for some value of "many". It does not necessarily imply a comparison or relative valuation, such as, "many" relative to the total number of acronyms. (5000 is a big number on its own, but not compared to 5 million.) And secondly, I had first come across usage such as gf and bf in emails between Westerners and Indians known to me, some 15-odd years ago, and Indian (techie) English has many :) possibly unique acronyms such as o/p for output, i/p for input, so I thought at the time, that gf and bf might be Indian English acronyms, having not come across them in general Western English usage, at least before that. [1] An arcane reference to an Asterix comic issue, maybe Asterix in Rome (or Italy), where they talk about learning modern languages such as Latin :)
- highwaylights 4y ago
  I don't know this, but I think the parent maybe meant the term boyfriend/girlfriend rather than the acronym? It is strange to parse given that it means "person that I'm non-platonically involved with" (i.e. not simply friends).
  - vram22 4y ago
    Your second paragraph raises an interesting and seemingly valid point, but your first paragraph gets me wrong: I did mean the acronym, i.e. gf or bf (and some other such ones; not all, by a long chalk). Anyway, thanks for giving me the benefit of the doubt. :)
raverbashing 4y ago
It's the obvious acronym for those words
- vram22 4y ago
  Yes, that's obvious to me too. My point was not whether it was common, but where it came from.

yesseri 4y ago

Father-in-law