soap opera

See also: Soapopera, soap-opera, Soap-Opera, soap-opéra, and soap opéra

English

Etymology

From the soap and detergent commercials originally broadcast during the shows, which were aimed at the audience of women who were doing their cleaning; opera from the melodramatic character of the shows, as the earlier horse opera.

Noun

soap opera (countable and uncountable, plural soap operas)

1. (countable) A radio or television serial, typically broadcast in the afternoon or evening, about the lives of melodramatic characters, which are often filled with strong emotions, highly dramatic situations and suspense.

   Synonyms: (colloquial) soap, daytime serial, (colloquial, popular among older people) story, (India) serial, (Philippines) teleserye, (particularly Latin America) telenovela, (Indonesia) sinetron

   Coordinate term: telenovela

   • 2002, Robert C. Allen, To Be Continued...: Soap Operas Around the World, Routledge, →ISBN, page 81:

     This chapter considers the growing interest in the popular Welsh-language soap opera, Pobol Y Cwm (People of the Valley), and the extent to which discourses of Welshness and definitions of cultural and national identity contribute to the appeal and longevity of the soap.

   • 2014, Frank J. Lechner, John Boli, The Globalization Reader, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 393:

     It also followed the very successful long-running soap opera, Neighbours.

2. (uncountable) Such serials in general.

Descendants

• → German: Seifenoper (calque)

Translations

television serial

• Arabic: تَمْثِيلِيَّة f (tamṯīliyya), (literal), مُسَلْسَلَات تِلِفِزْيُونِيَّة f pl (musalsalāt tilifizyūniyya), مُسَلْسَلَات pl (musalsalāt)

  Egyptian Arabic: تمثيلية f (tamseleyya), مسلسل m (mosalsal)

• Belarusian: мы́льная о́пера f (mýlʹnaja ópjera), тэлесерыя́л m (teljesjeryjál), серыя́л m (sjeryjál)
• Catalan: culebrot m, telenovel·la (ca) f, fulletó (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 肥皂劇／肥皂剧 (fei⁴ zou⁶ kek⁶)

  Mandarin: 肥皂劇／肥皂剧 (zh) (féizàojù), 電視劇／电视剧 (zh) (diànshìjù) (TV), 連續劇／连续剧 (zh) (liánxùjù)

• Czech: mýdlová opera (cs) f
• Danish: sæbeopera c
• Dutch: soap (nl) f, soapreeks, soapserie (nl) f
• Estonian: seebiooper
• Finnish: saippuasarja (fi), saippuaooppera (fi)
• French: feuilleton (fr) m, soap opera (fr) m, soap (fr) m, téléroman (fr) m (Québec)
• Galician: telenovela f
• German: Soap (de) f, Seifenoper (de) f
• Greek: σαπουνόπερα (el) f (sapounópera)
• Hebrew: אוֹפֶּרַת סַבּוֹן f (óperat sabón)
• Hungarian: szappanopera (hu)
• Icelandic: sápuópera f
• Indonesian: sinetron (id), opera sabun (id)
• Irish: sobaldráma m, sobalchlár m
• Italian: telenovela (it) f
• Japanese: 昼メロ (hiru-mero), 昼ドラマ (hiru-dorama), 昼ドラ (hiru-dora), ソープオペラ (sōpuopera), ドラマ (ja) (dorama) (TV series, TV drama), シリーズ (ja) (shirīzu)
• Korean: 연속극 (ko) (yeonsokgeuk), 드라마 (ko) (deurama) (TV series, TV drama), 시리즈 (ko) (sirijeu)
• Kyrgyz: эзилме опера (ezilme opera)
• Luxembourgish: Seefenoper
• Macedonian: са́пунска о́пера f (sápunska ópera), сапу́ница f (sapúnica)
• Navajo: táláwosh binahjįʼ njilkid
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: såpeopera m

  Nynorsk: såpeopera m

• Persian: اپرای صابون (operâ-ye sâbun), اپرای صابونی (operâ-ye sâbuni), نمایش صابونی (namâyeš-e sâbuni)
• Polish: telenowela (pl) f, opera mydlana (pl) f
• Portuguese: telenovela (pt) f, novela (pt) f
• Romanian: telenovelă f
• Russian: мы́льная о́пера (ru) f (mýlʹnaja ópera), телесериа́л (ru) m (teleseriál), сериа́л (ru) m (seriál)
• Scottish Gaelic: siabann m
• Slovene: telenovela f
• Spanish: telenovela (es) f, culebrón (es) m, folletín m, novelón (es) m
• Swedish: såpopera (sv) c, såpa (sv) c
• Tagalog: telenobela
• Thai: น้ำเน่า (náam-nâo), ละครน้ำเน่า (lá-kɔɔn-náam-nâo), ซีรีส์ (sii-rîi)
• Turkish: pembe dizi (tr)
• Ukrainian: ми́льна о́пера f (mýlʹna ópera), телесеріа́л m (teleseriál), серіа́л m (seriál)

See also

• sudsy (adjective)

Further reading

• soap opera on Wikipedia.Wikipedia