Language: cultural usage: “mild”

Tutoring a language, you reflect on difference in usage. The tutor makes an observation.

When I was a kid (in the Maritimes), and a day in winter was surprisingly warm and pleasant, an adult would describe it as “mild.” Kids didn’t say so; rather, a kid might say “warm” or “nice.”

The other day I was listening to French radio when someone reported the weather. In French, they described upcoming weather as “becoming milder.”

On the west coast, I’ve only heard “mild” used to describe the weather by older people from eastern Canada.