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The context here is that I'm translating from Spanish a phrase which has a wonderful suggestion of deep intimacy. I want to keep the translation as literal as possible but also to maintain the emotion of the phrase. The Spanish phrase is "siempre seguirá perteneciendo a tu intimidad", which roughly translates as "it will always remain personal to you". However, to my ear, that translation loses all the sensuousness of the original phrase, but I'm struggling to find alternatives (other than adding for example "deeply personal").

Any suggestions? Do we even have a word in English with the same connotations as "intimidad" in this sense of emotional, personal profundity?

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I suggest it will always remain intimate to you.

: belonging to or characterizing one's deepest nature
: marked by very close association, contact, or familiarity (intimate knowledge of the law)

I may be mistaken, but I believe intimate is very close to intimidad as far as Latin roots are concerned (from the Latin intimus).

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Intimate is an appropriate term to describe a deeply personal subject, as well as being closely related to intimidad by common descent. A good translation would be:

It will always remain intimate to you.

Here are the definitions by Dictionary.com (link above):

1. associated in close personal relations: an intimate friend.
2. characterized by or involving warm friendship or a personally close or familiar association or feeling: an intimate greeting.
3. very private; closely personal: one's intimate affairs.
4. characterized by or suggesting privacy or intimacy; warmly cozy: an intimate little café.
5. (of an association, knowledge, understanding, etc.) arising from close personal connection or familiar experience.

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  • Thank you. I prefer "cornbread ninja"'s choice of "to" rather than "with". Excellent answer though.
    – TrojanName
    Mar 23, 2012 at 15:37

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