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?

If you're so convinced that she's called the child fat then report her.
You're sure aren't you?
I wouldn't be though.
I was bought up in an area that used other words like this. I lived there till was an adult.
However my parents did not bring up to use the same words so they did not have the sMe meanings to me.
You do not know for sure that this person was calling this child fat.
You're assuming because that is your take on the word.

I am sure, yes.

That doesn't mean it necessarily warrants reporting.

YANBU. It can mean chubby/"healthy" here, too.

But you're not unless you've actually gone up to her and asked?
You have no idea what she actually thinks 'bonny' means, doesn't matter where you live.

She obviously meant 'tall' from the context. 'You're fat for year 4' makes no sense. There is no expectation,that older kids should be fatter. They are generally taller though. Maybe she used the word incorrectly because she doesn't know the meaning. Hardly a crime.

Bonn means beautiful. Get over it.

My friend has an 8 year old who wears age 12 clothes and is big - but I wouldn't say she was fat. She's in proportion. Is she bonny? Would it be insulting to say so?

I'm from somewhere near Sheffield and bonny means 'pretty' here. (I know you're sick of hearing that OP, but I'd like to know where this place is where bonny means 'fat' ).

And casual you left the Daily Mail off your list. Surely, that's the first place you complain so you can do a 'sad face'.

I'm not sure why people are telling the op she is wrong about the dialect in her area!

If an American tried telling you that the word fag was a derogatory term for a gay person would you just as fiercely deny it and tell them it meant cigarette and that was the only meaning?

If the teacher did mean 'very big' for year 4 then that is not ok. I completely understand that teachers are under huge pressure and sometimes can't do right for doing wrong but commenting on a child's appearance is not ok. I'm not sure why you're having such a hard time op.

I grew up in Sheffield, and bonny did indeed mean fat where I lived. Well, chunky, well fed, a bit overweight - not necessarily massively fat.

My parents grew up 25 miles away from Sheffield and to them bonny meant pretty. My mum unintentionally offended several people when she moved to Sheffield, before realising the different meaning there.

Strangely Had I was going to use that exact same example earlier in the thread!

The teacher meant 'big'. Now that may have had positive connotations of health or negative ones of fat, but given that bonny is used to mean plump, chubby, solid, here, it wasn't used insultingly (I doubt the teacher meant to cause her any intentional upset) but it was, as I said in my OP, a bit tactless and thoughtless and resulted in a little girl being upset.

I'm sorry to disappoint, but I'm nowhere near Sheffield by the way :)

I don't know how or why Sheffield came into it, but I do believe in miracles

The only time it means big is when a Scot is talking about money

"I got £1000 pounds for the old car, a bonny sum"

We use bonny quite a lot around here. I've just had to check with DH that it meant what I thought it did (it does, it means pretty).

I would be horrified if I thought I'd called a little kid fat or chubby by accident.

S Yorks (Doncaster, so pretty near Sheffield.)
Yeah, Bonny means strapping if applied to a girl out of babyhood. It's not a pleasant thing to say to a young girl. I actually remember being called this as a child (I was stocky, but by no means huge) and it affected my confidence hugely.

Yanbu, op.

Ok well I'm not Scottish but both my DD's have been called bonny before strangely enough in Wales and I picked up the term as well because my DD's are tall for their ages. It would be open to misinterpretation to say "well aren't you a big girl " imagine an innocent sentence being overanalysed so I too say " aren't you a bonny girl "
It's a compliment ffs she looks tall/healthy/pretty

My grandma always said 'whai aye, bonnie lass', and I don't think Fatty Langford minds the name much.

Bonny... Wouldn't say it means FAT. Big. All round big. Like Miranda. If you look at Miranda before she lost weight, she wasn't dramatically overweight or hugely untoned. Just... bonny. Big and bonny.

Whatever though. It's definitely an insult, even if a veiled, fairly well-meaning one one, and I would be really upset to hear it levelled at a child, because there is just no need.

I'm Scottish and it meant pretty or attractive.

Er no

I don't know how many times I can say in different ways here - not where some of you live, but here - bonny is a synonym for plump, chunky, big.

It is not me looking for ways to be offended, it is just a meaning.

There are a number of words which change meaning according to the country and region in the English speaking world. My mother grew up somewhere where 'cock' was a term of endearment. I imagine if I called someone 'cock' here I would get a look!

Pumps were a type of shoe where I grew up. They are however a twee term for a fart here. Neither term is wrong, per se: just regional differences.

Outside of London, jack Jones is a clothes shop for men. Inside London, it means 'on your own.'

I could go on :) I didn't think I'd have to give a wee (urine or small) English lesson on colloquial language!

^^ post to Navy

FFS OP I bet you wish you hadn't bothered - there are a lot of deliberately obtuse people on this thread!

It has crossed my mind, but I'm a stubborn sod having been repeatedly told I am unwelcome I shall stay!