Partner? SO? Boyfriend? Let’s create a better term!
Tuesday, January 15th, 2008So… you’ve been romantically involved with someone for years now, and the relationship is serious and solid. For whatever reason (and there are many!), you don’t want to get married. Now that you’ve achieved the sought after “long-term, committed relationship”, how do you refer to eachother?
You could just let people call you husband and wife, but if that’s what you wanted, you’d be married.
The same goes for “fiance”.
You could confuse people with “common law husband/wife”, but that’s unwieldly and stiff sounding.
You could call eachother boyfriend and girlfriend, but that sounds like a casual fling or just plain juvenile. It can also cause real problems with people who assume that the playing field is still open.
You could put knots in your tongue with “significant other” or shorten it to “SO”, but the term has become dated and laughable to many. It also becomes tiresome explaining to people what it means.
You could refer to eachother as “my partner”, but if you have a business partner, things get confusing fast. If you say “life partner”, you assume that you’ll be together for your whole lives, and frankly, that’s unlikely.
You could say “soul mate”, but many people find that phrase too new-agey, or inappropriate for formal situations. The same goes for “lover”.
You could say “my better half”, but that’s sort of dodging the issue, isn’t it? And I hate to say it, but what about situations where it’s just not true?
“Other half” is a bit better, but personally, I like to think that my “partner” and I are discreet individuals.
What we need is a term that meets all these requirements:
* Short
* Obvious in its meaning
* Appropriate for both casual and formal situations
* Can be used by both males and females
With all the creative talent out there, this should be doable. Post your suggestions!