The word handsome, can I translate it with hoofsome for ponies or does it sound off/ doesn't has it origin in 'hand'some?

Um, don't overthink this. Just use handsome and ignore the implications.

For Pete's sake, why would creatures without hands use round doorknobs?

6458969
Maybe pony hooves are mailable? Able to be condensed and softened as the situation requires?

That or the show’s creators expected us to just go with it.

6458967
Handsome is not a literal reference to hands. It’s an expression often used to describe a male that someone believes is attractive.

6458972
So what would you use then instead?

6458971
I don't get what you mean witht the mailable part

6458969
My editor want me to change it and we are not sure what woould be right or if it cnan stay at it is.

6458972
Actually the origin of the word is related to hands. Meaning easy to handle and suitable in the mid 16th century and changed uses to meaning attractive /appreciable in the late 16th century . But I agree with not changing it. Often writers tend to overdo everything to not use any word with hand in it and it's super annoying. If you're that against using things with hand in it use an alternative. Like attractive ect.

Most poeple just use the words with ‘hand’ in them.

I refuse to do it – there is no way ponies would say handsome and doing it anyway is, I think, being inauthentic.

And that regularly causes problems. And like 90% of the time it’s with the word ‘handle’.

The only solution I know of is to work around the word entirely (I used the word ‘hoofle’ a total of one time but ugh). Instead of ‘handle’ I have to say ‘deal with’ or something like that. Similarly, instead of ‘handsome’ you have to say ‘pretty’ or ‘attractive’ or what have you. I know the counter-argument – you used ‘handsome’ in a context where ‘handsome’ was perfect and any other term wasn’t because you did in fact mean ‘handsome’ and not ‘pretty’ – they’re not the same! But well that’s the cost.

6458972
Sure, but it’s a term which plausibly originated from hands (as is ‘handle’). Actually in the case of handle the link seems even harder to deny.

6458967 Your proposal does not amuse Lyra.

6458974
Don’t change it. That’s just over complicating it.

6458989
Thanks for the explanation of the background Handsome as it is isn't an option I could change the word of course but I don't like that option.

6458996
Well, I add you opinion to the results

6458997
Working around it isn't really what I am looking for if I can avoid that. But good to know you think it cvomes from hands too.

6459002
Come on everything is fine:

Ok, so the scale tenders more into keep it as it is. It is a questionable decision, that makes this threat clear, but it seems the most of the readers should get it.

Thank you all for your opinions

6458974

My editor want me to change it and we are not sure what would be right or if it can stay at it is.

Either use a real synonym for handsome or else just use handsome. Hoofsome doesn't mean anything.

6459012 You wish to rid the world of hands!

6459026
not to be purposefully cynical or anything, but that’s a really low standard.

6458967

Sounds like you have 3 options:

1: Leave it be and just move on.
2: Take 6458989 's response into account and figure out how ponies might have translated "easy to handle" into "easy on the eyes" without using the word hand. This seems complicated, but could provide an interesting tidbit of offhand worldbuilding.
3: Use different word that's less contentious.

6459031

I'll just leave this here...

6459026

6459028
It is just a ponyversion, like everypony instead of everyone, or everycreature they use yet with the new characters.

6459031
I don't

6459037
Mhh, if the show uses it already, it may be a good point.

6459043
I think I just leave it be, while I confess option 2 seems interesting. The thing is that my goal is that everyone understands it and comming up with something else, even if would sound good from logic perspective may confuse the readers even more.

6458974
Tell your editor: Just because you can ponify every expression, doesn't mean you should. You're better off keeping to recognisable words and terms they use in the show.

Exceptions:
Of course, you can still do it if you have a pun of exceptional equinity.

6459051
uhm, she says I should change ti and I want to keep it as hoofsome

6458997
What do you think they call those things on the end of Discord's arms?
Spike's?
Gilda's?
Iron Will's?
Derp.

6459052
Then it sounds like you already made up your mind.

6459060
No that was just the start situation, she told me to change it and I was more like it is a good replacment for handsome. We wasn't sure if the word handsome really came from 'hand' or not. I started this threat to see what people say to it and what is more accepted and make mroe sense.

6459050 Mmm, hands!

Edit: Replaced the one I posted with a less bloody one:

6459076
This shouldn't be here, could you replace it with something less blody

6458967
Not every word with 'hand' in it is referencing hands, just like not everything with 'man' is referencing a man. Honestly, it's always irritated me when people ponify everything. Not even the show does it all the time.

6459054

Spike's?

claws

Gilda's?

claws

Iron Will's?

claws

Discord’s?

depends on which arm

but it’s not that hands don’t exist, it’s that they’re not common enough to make it plausible that a word like handle is based on them.

6459093

depends on which arm

6459086
The show doesn't care for such stuff mostly

6459093
It's not plausible that ponies would speak English yet not know what hands are even though many creatures living in and around Equestria obviously possess them.

6459093

Iron Will's?

claws

Um, care to explain? minotaurs don't have claws, they have hands.

6459114
I didn’t say they don’t know what hands are (though, in the first official comic Rainbow actually doesn’t know), I said it’s not plausible that they are important enough to become basic words.

6459143
ah, right, sure.

6459185
Maybe those basic words came from non-pony sources along with the many technologies (door handles, etc) that aren't designed for ponies yet to seem be adopted by them?

There are many possibilities besides the few very narrow-minded ones you keep pushing as facts.

6459305
Indeed. Or maybe Celestia once invented a spell that simulated true randomness, and using this she drew 79 random letters (including white spaces), and by pure chance received a message spelling out

THOU SHALT USE THE WORD HANDLE FROM NOW ON IT MEANS SOMETHING LIKE DEAL WITH IT

There are, in fact, lots of possibilities of how the word ‘hand’ could have ended up used by a species that doesn’t use hands. This kind of argumentation is a type of rational fallacy where someone asserts that something sounds plausible, and as a response you point out that there is in fact some way in which it might not be true. You can pretty much always do this against any statement short of an actual logical proof. Since you can always do it though it doesn’t mean anything.

The argument is plausibility not fact. Like, yes. Maybe there is some clever reason why ponies say handle. Or maybe whoever used it in the show didn’t give it a lot of thought. If you actually had to bet a lot of money on which of those is true, you would bet on the latter. So as long as you’re not going to tell me that, no, you would bet on that person thinking it was authentic for some clever reason, you don’t actually believe what you’re arguing for and are just doing it because you prefer the conclusion better, and because it’s easy to come up with arguments for it.

6459028
I agree. Don't try to ponify this, hoofsom just doesn't work. Use "good looking" maybe.

I mean I get why you would want to ( and I apologise for my "it's annoying when writers..." Statement if it came across as rude I wasn't in a great mood and it came out in my opinion) Ponyfiying words isn't inherently bad unless it interrupts the flow of reading when a reader might struggle to realise what the original word was was what I intended to convey. But back to the original question I thought of an alternative ponyfication "herd worthy" implying that they look good enough that people would want to add them to their herd. E.g "My my you're looking herd worthy tonight".

6459375
Let's see.
The movie is canon and features tons of creatures that use hands. Sure, many have clawed fingers, but they still are hands.
And yet somehow you don't see how it's possible that these civilizations invented the stoves, doorknobs, and other such things that the ponies use?
Mine is the most plausible answer to both why ponies use terminology about hands AND why they have technology that is designed to be held with hands. They're an integrated society with tons of grippy visitors, many of which I already named in an earlier post. Spike is like ONE OF THE MAIN CHARACTERS and he ALWAYS uses his clawed hands. I'd say the poor writing is anytime someone pretends the ponies are somehow so unobservant that they have no idea what paddy-paws are for even though they have tons of friends who use them.
I see the ponies saying something such as "on the other hoof" or "somepony" as being a colloquialism and nothing more. It doesn't mean they are unaware of the term "on the other hand" or "somebody", it just means they are using something else because it's a style.
Anything else doesn't have basis in canon.
Or in common sense.

6458967
Mostly just agreeing with everyone who says to just use handsome, but I'd also like to add that the show itself uses handsome regularly.

site:mlp.wikia.com/wiki/Transcripts/ handsome

Synonyms for "handsome"

• athletic
  beautiful
  clean-cut
  dapper
  elegant
  good-looking
  graceful
  lovely
  personable
  smart
  smooth
  stately
  stylish
  suave
  admirable
  aristocratic
  august
  becoming
  comely
  fair
  fashionable
  fine
  impressive
  majestic
  noble
  pulchritudinous
  robust
  sharp
  spruce
  strong
  virile
  well-dressed
  well-proportioned

6458967 Canon lyrics.

sauce

6459581
The show argument is really storng I confess, have to think about that.

6459723
I see your point

6459517
Your suggestion really sound good to me, I will suggest your line "My my you're looking herd worthy tonight". to my editor and see what she say.

6458967 There are several reasons to just use the word handle.

The first of which is that unless it's cool, desperately trying to rid the story of all references to humanity often backfires and looks either silly or very, well, desperate.

The second of which is that there's nothing wrong with words relating to humans. There are two reasons for this, as well. Namely that if we assume that the ponies don't actually speak english (and that what we're viewing is really just a translation of their actual language) then it makes sense that we'd translate a word into our equivalent. The second is that things like hands do very much exist in Equestria. Hand is only loosely defined, but if we go for the idea that a hand has a number of fingers and a thumb and a palm, then we've seen several examples. Even if you want to be picky and say that most of them are claws, I think there's no denying that Tirek and Iron Will both have hands.

To take this further, assuming we are hearing the language as it is spoken (which makes no sense, since ponies on an essentially alien world wouldn't actually speak english), we also don't know how their language evolved. They could have evolved to use the term hand since a hand may have been more dextrous than a hoof at the time, and so when they referred to 'handling' something it means that the pony was using something as expertly as if they had five little hooves on the end of their one big hoof. Speculation abounds.

And of course the show uses those words too.

6460010
With in mind my story covers over 700 years of Eq history, I would, according to your opinion, have to change it so that modern ponies say handsome or handle and stuff and back in the days when the griffons and other creatures with claws/hands wasn't around they use hoofsome and such.

Discord on the other hand would be an argument for both sides, either they dislike him enough that they didn't use hands in any way or it mixed up in the language because of him when he was in charge. Thinking on this further we could blame him for all flaws in EQ language

6460021 It is one of many possibilities. The evolution of language is something that I'm convinced people just made up as they went along.

Similar ideas could have come from Discord having maintained a grip on Equestria for a long time, it having evolved from a pejorative term to something more universal, then into handsome. It could have even meant completely the opposite to what it does today (such as the word awful, if I'm not much mistaken): handsome might have meant 'that looks as unpleasant as a hand', but as opinions changed, shifted to mean the opposite, and its dual use in terms like handling or handle could have evolved somehow from there. Or maybe it just means 'stands out like a hand on a horse'.

What I'm basically saying is that there are untold legion of possibilities that could be explored which make using terms like this if not plausible, then at least feasible in cannon. If I can think of three bad ideas off the top of my head then a forum can conceivably think of nine good ideas given time, and I'm sure there are more imaginative gents than me out there.

6458967
Honestly, I think hoofsome is a hilarious pun