Let's talk about "de peluche"

Question

If you look up peluche, it lists it as cuddly. I wonder does it mean plush? Mi osito de peluche, my teddy bear. What if I said my perro was "de peluche" it would mean she was plush, stuffed, not a real dog right?

There is no way to say "cuddly" with peluche, because it really means "stuffed" like "stuffed" animal like "plush" isn't that right?

Mi perro es tierno. My dog is cuddly. Is this the only way? Gracias por sus ayuda.

Answer 1

"Peluche" as far as I have always known, is indeed "plush".

We use "de peluche" as a generic term to refer to all stuffed toys: bears, tigers, monkeys whatever.

These are all "peluches"

I agree with Gekkosan. This term is not easy to translate, for some reason. - lazarus1907, Apr 12, 2011

Answer 2

Teddy is a reference to Theodore Roosevelt. All other toys made out of plush are simply called plush toys. The term "stuffed animals" includes toys not covered with plush as well as plush toys. There are separate terms for dolls that look like people.

Right. And for us, all soft, stuffed toys are basically "peluches". - Gekkosan, Apr 12, 2011

If I hadn't married a toy designer, I'd still be calling all of them stuffed animals. - lorenzo9, Apr 12, 2011

Goes to show that designers may have perfect words and ideas for their products, but consumers always do as they please. :-) - Gekkosan, Apr 12, 2011

Answer 3

I don't think "de peluche" can be properly translated as a single word into English, because it would be something like "any toy made out of plush/felp", and "peluches" is a short way to refer to those toys (look at Gekkosan's picture). A "Teddy bear", for example, is made out of plush, so to us is a "peluche" or "osito de peluche". The term "teddy" is untranslatable in Spanish, because it comes from the name Ted, and perhaps because of some resemblance that someone noticed at some point between someone called Ted and the plush bear.

Close it was named after Theodore Roosevelt when he refused to shoot a baby bear. - BellaMargarita, Apr 12, 2011

So they made a toy and named it after him. - BellaMargarita, Apr 12, 2011

Answer 4

My dictionary says mimoso/a means cuddly, but I think it is referring more to "liking to cuddle" than "plush/soft".

Sorry this isn't a direct answer to the 'peluche' thing, but I thought it was relevant. - arh1, Apr 11, 2011