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Could someone explain what this word means? It seems to describe a man who will do anything a woman he likes wants him to do but it is not that obvious from the E&J defintions and picture below, which I have borrowed from the book "Onomatopoeia."

The best clue from the definition is the word だらしない but the meanings of that do not seem to fit (slovenly?, womanizing?, weak?). The key English word, "spoony" seems to exist only in Japanese dictionaries.

態度、身なりなどにしまりがない様子。とくに、男性が女性に対してだらしない態度をとる形容に多く用いる。
Describes a loose attitude or appearance. Often used to describe a man's spoony attitude toward a woman.

でれdれ、spoony?

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でれでれ is also the root of the でれ in ツンデレ, which is used to refer to someone (typically a female) who is rather moody—she's swooning over someone one moment, and knocking him over the horizon the next. Likewise, I've seen デレデレしないで as a request for someone (again, typically female in my observation) to stop fawning all over someone.

As to the English word "spoony", that's a running joke resulting from the English translation of Final Fantasy IV.

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  • Interesting. I have seen the word used to describe males nearly 100% of the time.
    – user4032
    Commented Apr 15, 2014 at 13:22
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    @kaji: Tx. So per your link, spoony and hence でれでれ is　to be "enamored in a silly or sentimental way."(?)...IOW my original guess is correct?
    – Tim
    Commented Apr 15, 2014 at 15:12
  • @Tim: That's right.
    – Kaji
    Commented Apr 15, 2014 at 16:13

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