r/turkishlearning • u/princessbrownboi • 1d ago

đŸ€ Seeking Advice Is This Is A Compliment?

Is it a compliment to be called Esmer by someone of Turkish heritage?

1 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

20 comments sorted by

16

u/EnvironmentNo5224 1d ago

it just means brunette. what's the context here?

3

u/Zoshi2200 1d ago

Both esmer and kumral mean brunette. Esmer is used for people with both dark hair and tan skin. Kumral is for those with fair skin and dark hair.

3

u/EnvironmentNo5224 1d ago

nope. kumral and esmer are completely different.

7

u/Zoshi2200 1d ago

By definition not, by context yes. Like I gave in the examples.

2

u/rulersofthepast 1d ago

you use kumral for dirty blonde, "sand" colour, "kum" ral. esmer is used for black/brown hair as well as tan skin, since esmer people naturally have them both. kumral does not indicate skin colour.

1

u/many_zeros 1d ago

It is not a direct compliment but if someone mentions that someone is esmer, chances are they mean it as something positive. But we need to know the context and how it is said. 

-1

u/princessbrownboi 1d ago

If I ever had a daughter I would name her Esmer. Is that weird lol? Can it be used as a name?

2

u/justtsomeonepassinby 1d ago

I don't know why people hated this idea so much but I actually had a classmate named "Esmer". Ironically, she was a pale girl with red hair lol. But Esmer sounds beautiful as a name in my opinion.

2

u/Zoshi2200 1d ago

Just Esmer would be weird but there are names like: Esmeray and Esma

1

u/EnvironmentNo5224 1d ago

haven't seen anyone with that name in turkey

1

u/DescriptionBulky6258 1d ago

no lol it's like naming your kid brown or something, esmer means dark-skinned

-1

u/princessbrownboi 1d ago

I just hear it a lot in older songs and the word sounds so beautiful to me. I asked AI what it meant and if it was a compliment but I wanted to ask real humans as well for better accuracy lol

1

u/menina2017 1d ago edited 1d ago

Esmer is brunette. It’s a loanwords from Arabic asmar. Asmar also means dark eyed , dark haired or dark skinned or all of the above or just one of these. In Arabic we definitely call black people esmer /asmar but in Turkish people have told me different things. But i call myself esmer because guess what I’m dark skinned but also dark haired and dark eyed.

It’s a very context dependent word. Someone with fair skin and dark features is esmer but so is someone with dark skin and dark features.

1

u/DescriptionBulky6258 1d ago

i'd say someone with fair skin but dark-ish hair is more kumral than esmer.

1

u/Zoshi2200 1d ago

Depends on the intention. Some people are colourists and use it negatively. Otherwise, it's used to describe someone with darker colouring, like dark hair and tan skin.

1

u/Uzamsal 1d ago

Mayhaps that could be correct for "esmer gĂŒzelim" or such variants. Esmer gĂŒzelim would mean "beauty brunette" ending with a possessive sufix "-im"

0

u/Comfortable-Pie-9051 1d ago

Looolll why would it be a compliment

-2

u/fistiklikebab 1d ago

it isn’t a compliment nor an insult, they’re calling you fair skinned or/and you have black/brown hair

6

u/Reinhard23 1d ago

How does esmer mean fair skinned? It means dark-skinned.

1

u/fistiklikebab 1d ago

I am sleep deprived, I meant dark skinned đŸ˜Ș