All my life, I have always preferred conservative-dressed women that completely do the opposite of leggings, tights, mini skirts, booty shorts and anything else provocative. To me, dressing appropriately (long skirt, a sweater and flats, for instance) is homely, but my wife thinks it's an insulting term because it represents ugliness. Is this true? Am I wrong to define what homely actually is?
Not too sure a lady would be pleased if you tell her she is a homely woman. The meaning of the word especially when applied to a woman is not well positive I think. To say a homely looking puppy might be okay though. Just my proverbial two cents. Ryder13
Women don't like to be called homely. It's not a positive term at all. I'm not surprised at her response. The term is mostly equated with being ugly or even invisible.
That is a big insult to say a woman looks homely. What do you mean by homely? A lady looks nice and attractive or she is dressed to much like a street walker, is that what you mean? I think as long as a lady is dressed nice for her body style and her dress is not up to her underwear, she is nicely dressed, and she carry herself in a lady like fashion, she isn't homely.
Yeah, I would stay away from that word. Do you mean she's conservative? Or maybe that she's covered-up? Or that's she hot even though she's not flaunting her butt/boobs for everyone to see? Try describing why you find that kind of dress attractive by explaining why it's hot and not using a word to represent it. That way, it will be personal and avoid the whole connotation/denotation problem.
I absolutely agree that saying to a woman she is homely brings along negative connotations. If my husband would say that to e I would be so pissed off lol. It would be better to find a different expression, such as very attractive versus less attractive.
Homely has never been a positive word in any way, so I'm not surprised at all that your wife got mad at you. I think based from the kind of description that you would like a girl to get dressed, then I think it would be appropriate to say that you like "simple-dressing" girls. Never ever say that you like "homely-looking" girls.
Your wife has a point. Homely for me reminds me off cozy and comfy. That will probably be a good term for someone who likes to wear sweatpants and comfortable baggy clothes all the time. For someone dressed as you mentioned, I would probably call them conservative, feminine and maybe old-school? I do like the style you are mentioning. I think it's very feminine and soft, I like wearing clothes like that. But I would not call it homely.
The word homely, to me, has always held a negative connotation. Where as words like reserved, coservative, or prudent can have positive and negative meanings.
To me the definition of homely means unattractive, so I have to agree with your wife in saying the word is insulting. The word homely conjures up visions of an unattractive women where you are referring to a style of dressing. Two completely different things. Perhaps you could use terms like reserved, conservative, classic, conventional, traditional, stylish.
