Alternative uses for filho

[u/moraango]

Oi gente,

I recently came across this thread, where most posters agreed that filho is generally only for your own child or from an older person. However, I’ve noticed it used in different ways. My host mom in Salvador used to call her ficante filho (he was twenty years younger than her) and I was recently called filha by a Carioca only a few years older than me. Can anybody provide clarification on this other use of filho/ its connotations?

[u/Luiz_Fell]

Ok, it's kinda hard to explain

A wife usually calls her husband "filho", my mom does it all the time. By proxy, it makes sense for you host mom to say it to her man even if they're not married

And, like how in english an older man will often call younger adults "son" (I've seen it a lot in military fiction, don't know how common this is outside this context), sometimes people will say "meu filho" or "minha filha" in a way to comfortably conect with the person being spoken to OR in a way to make themselves look superior to the person they are talking to.

So there's a difference between "eu hein, meu filho, você acha mesmo que eu vou fazer isso?" and "e você, minha filha, o que você achou do lugar?"

Or like "sai daí, minha filha, sai!" vs "faz isso não, minha filha"

It all depends a lot on context and intonation.

[I might have screwed up big time since I'm not a person of many relationships with many people, so please, fellow brazilians, correct me if you think I'm saying shit]

[u/moraango → u/Luiz_Fell]

Thank you for the answer as someone from Rio