To think this was a bit tactless of the teacher

[callherwillow]

The teacher in question referred to friends daughter (Year 4) as 'bonny'. I realise that there are areas of the country where this is just a compliment without any other connotations but here it essentially means 'fat.'

The friends DD was a few minutes late due to helping set up the assembly and upon entering had gone to sit with her friends and was stopped by the teacher who tried to steer her to the year 6s and when she politely explained she was in year 4 the teacher commented (in a whole school assembly where the children could all hear her) 'well, you are a very bonny girl for year 4, aren't you?'

Not the teachers finest hour, I don't think?

No, precisely - she wasn't saying 'you're fat for year 4', she was saying 'you're well built for year 4' or 'you're a strapping girl for year 4'. Bonny doesn't ever just mean 'tall'. I would say she could only have meant 'well developed', which is a) inappropriate and b) likely to lead a young girl to feel self-conscious about her body.

perspicacia yes he was! Bobby's Shafto's fat and fair, combing out his yellow hair..

In just going to put it out there and say that OP needs to cancel the bonny cheque.
You can see yourself out Orchid

OP, I admire your patience and tenacity

Gosh, he was fine and fair in the version I was taught. Every day's a school day.

I think bonny is a euphemism for stocky. Like homely is a euphemism for plain. The teacher probably didn't engage brain before speaking.

Maybe she meant big as in tall, rather than fat, but it just came out wrong.

Ah perspicacia I didn't know there were different versions! Fine and fair sounds a lot more complimentary.

My granny used to say bonny but it never meant fat. She was Scottish so it was "ahh bonny wee baby" or that sort of context. Usually a compliment 😊

Regardless of what you think it means, or what folks "round here" think it means. Surely it's only what the teacher thinks it means that's important.

It makes perfect sense that she thought the child was tall for her age, using bonny the way she understands it.

If the child was offended then simply explaining words have different meanings to different people would sort it.

But I'm definitely with those who are saying, if you genuinely think this person called a young girl fat, why the hell are you asking AIBU?

I can't read 13 pages of discussion - if anyone happens across this - please could you let me know where OP is from so I can make sure never to use the word 'bonny' (which I thought was a compliment in English speaking parts).

I've never heard of bonny meaning fat. Ever. I've heard of babies described as bonny meaning big and healthy (NOT fat) and for everyone else, meaning beautiful, pretty, cute etc.

The main question though is does OP really believe that a teacher was calling a child 'fat'? If so, maybe it says more about OP than the person who actually made the comment.

I'm from Yorkshire and bonny def means fat up there... I was called it a lot!

Bonny is def also used as euphemism for big. This could be fat or tall but I've certainly heard it used as 'fat'. As well as to mean pretty, lovely etc.

And just to throw into the Bobby Shafto debate I thought he was "tall and slim, always looks so neat and trim!"

I live in Yorkshire. Bonny doesn't mean fat round here. We have a bonny baby competition in the local paper every year FGS. I think that people who think that looking bonny or looking well either have a chip on their shoulder or are, erm, a little overweight themselves.

casanova how funny! You were deprived of the description of his lovely yellow hair which always made me imagine he looked like our local newsreader Mike Neville

I'm from Yorkshire. Bonny can mean pretty, or it can mean plump and healthy looking. You wouldn't say it in a totally negative way as in, 'she's put on a few pounds, and now she looks a little on the bonny side'; 'I want to lose weight as I'm feeling really bonny', but you might well say someone is a bonny lass to encompass the fact that they are pretty in a well-fed kind of way.

It certainly doesn't mean tall, though.

To be honest what I am more surprised about is the fact that said teacher didn't know if she was in Y4 or Y6. How many pupils is there in that school?
This is the worrying thing for me.

It's like canny. In Scotland it means careful with money but to grandma 'h'way canny lass' it meant something else. She discovered that when she moved to Scotland.

I'm sorry but you should have complaints against you for being stupid. In any part of the UK bonny now and always has meant 'beautiful'. Nowhere in any part of the UK does it mean fat and never has. Look in the dictionary. Honestly check your facts before making such a ridiculous post

Re the Sheffield thing - I live in Sheffield; I grew in in nearby Doncaster (also mentioned above) and, for us, bonny means pretty/cute.

And yes - can mean healthy looking.
I have never known it to mean fat though!

Bonny means fat where I come from too. I don't think it was necessarily meant that way but I would be a little unhappy about it.

Toodle you are plain wrong, you know.

Maybe it's fat is in a bonny baby, which would have been in ye olde days, a chubby baby. Still cute and healthy looking.

Toodle-you're your wrong ,read back and read the full thread and you will see dictionary definitions people have posted.