Please settle an argument between me and DP..... what does 'mild' mean?

[Limth]

You may be preventing a fucking divorce here, so please help by answering this question -

Question: If I said "It's milder today than it was yesterday", would you take that to mean:
A: Its warmer than it was yesterday
B: Its colder than yesterday

Very many thanks!

Quoted the wrong person. People who think milder means colder in the context of a UK winter need to '
open click on a dictionary.

Warmer

Warmer

I think it would depend on how it was yesterday - if yesterday was cold, it would mean warmer, if yesterday was hot it would mean less hot.

I mean, yes, we were having this conversation last night (in the UK, in November) but this is very much a recurring theme for us.

DP is steadfast - its not context dependent..... 'milder' always means colder/cooler/lower temperature.

Definitely depends on what the weather was like yesterday. For me milder means more average - ie if it was freezing yesterday then milder today means warmer. If we are coming out of a heat wave then milder means it's a bit cooler/more comfortable

If we had a heat wave and then it went colder - I would say it's milder - so it depends on context.

Basically means not in the extreme

Depends on the weather yesterday. If yesterday was minus five and snowy then milder today would be warmer.

If yesterday was extremely hot then milder today would be cooler.

It could also be used for less windy or less extreme rain.

Send him to a gulag for reeducation.

He called you a fucknugget for using a word in the way that a majority of people use that word?
Do his family use “milder” his way? His work colleagues? Or is it just something that exists in his own head? Or does he realise it means warmer, but can’t bear to be wrong so he’s doubling down?

Definitely A

Milder is just less extreme, so if hot - cooler, if cold - warmer, if windy - less wind, etc

Of course it’s warmer. It might be logical to say that it could also be used to mean cooler in the case of hot weather, but that just isn’t how it is used in everyday speech (or not by the vast majority of people in this country) and actual usage of terms is important.

If I heard the sentence ‘tomorrow will be milder than today in such-and-such a place’ I immediately have a mental image of today being unpleasantly or unusually cold in that place and tomorrow less so. I don’t have to ask myself whether it’s particularly hot or cold.

Similarly with temperament. If someone says ‘person A is milder than B’ I understand straight away that B is more fiery or aggressive than A. It won’t mean that B is completely passive, for example, and A more assertive. Because in relation to personality mild and milder are used in a more specific way than ‘less extreme / closer to the average than’.

As for op’s husband… I would find that infuriating! There’ll be plenty of evidence in weather forecasts over the coming months that it most definitely is used to mean ‘warmer’ though and I’d be gleefully pointing out each and every one!

Oh god, no, not offensive at all. We sling insults at each other all the time.

You know a row is serious in my house when we stop calling each other rude names 😂Albeit, "fucknugget" and all the other awful things we called each other were said through teeth gritted in frustration.

DP is steadfast - its not context dependent..... 'milder' always means colder/cooler/lower temperature.

Congratulations! You married an ignoramus - and a stubborn one!

Warmer obviously.

If you were talking about the weather getting colder, you'd say 'it is cooler today than it was yesterday'.

It means warmer. Your DP needs to look at a dictionary!

In the winter, I'd say warmer. In the summer, I'd say colder....

Warmer of course 😵‍💫

I called him many things for using the word in the complete opposite way from most people. Rude things were said on both sides 😃

I have no idea where he got his ridiculous idea about the meaning of "milder" from. His family are insane so possible them. I think this might just be something he's convinced himself of in his own head.

Normally warmer, but depends entirely on what the previous day was like. If it was hot, I would assume you meant cooler, but more often than not the previous day was cold rather than hot.

I mean, if you're in the Sahara it probably means cooler....but you're not.

Warmer because mild is usually used in the context of Winter. You don’t say in the height of Summer Ooh it’s mild today !

You are both wrong. The definition of milder is less severe. Therefore warmer or colder depends on the starting point.
If it was raging heat yesterday and milder today, that would be cooler.
if it was freezing cold yesterday but milder to day, that would be warmer.

If someone used it in the second context I'd think wtf are you on about?!

It may technically be correct but I can honestly say in my 40-odd years on this earth I've never heard it used to denote cooler.