to find it odd to refer to someone as your "life partner"?

[HarlowEver]

A new guy started at work today and he said something along the lines of he was glad to have got the job as he had recently moved in with his "life partner"

He is straight, as he later referred to his girlfriend.

Would you ever refer to your husband or boyfriend as a "life partner"

When we moved in together.

Or possibly after our first child was born.

Usual suspect

I alternate between partner, other half, him indoors. 30+ years with 3 grown up children, boyfriend is too lightweight to use.

It's a shame Ummer hasn't caught on. It comes from when you introduce your 'partner' at a gathering as 'this is my um... er....' and sums up the lack of a suitable word.

My was for your previous comments btw....

presumptuous

I say partner. We have a child and we live together, so boyfriend feels weird and teenage, but we have no plans to get married. He refers to me as the boss or the gaffer.

I wouldn't use life partner, but I guess people like it because it clearly differentiates from a business partner and stresses the commitment.

Yup, I'm still waiting for someone to come up with a graceful solution for what I should call my other half. You can't expect middle-aged women to call each other 'girlfriend', can you? And she's not my wife.

Plus, as squoosh says, partner is the go-to word when you don't want to presume someone is gay or straight, and also when you don't want to reveal if you're gay or straight.

Lover to me makes me think of people having an affair ... or just in a relationship having sex with no commitment.

I like the phrase 'to take a lover'.

The only terms I really can't stand are 'other half' and 'better half'. The first sounds like you aren't a complete person on your own (which, as a perpetually single person, I resent ) and the second sounds like the first with an annoying addition of self deprecation.

Other than those two - I have no strong feelings about any relationship terminology.

My boss (American, in her 60s) refers to 'her beau'. We do not childishly snigger at this.

I think partner is a great term, life partner a bit cringey.

My aunt and uncle have been together 30 plus years and arent married. They call each other by their name as do we although i call her aunt too.

To those who don't like partner- any suggestions as to what I call the man I have ben living with for 30 years and have two children with?

Boyfriend.

Boyfriend? Really? He's over 50!

My dd has boyfriends- she's 18.

Bit ageist but whatever.

Why on earth is it ageist to think that boyfriend/girlfriend do not describe middle aged people with in 30 year relationships?

The other problem with girlfriend in particular is that if an American lady says it, she doesn't mean partner in the romantic sense. Confused the heck out of me for ages when an online friend who I was pretty sure was straight from other comments kept referring to her girlfriend.

I'm not a huge fan of "other half", but it does at least cover just about all situations without offending anyone.

I might just start referring to DP as my moon and stars.

I like partner because it doesn't specify gender and has a sense of permanence to it

I don't like 'partner' make me think of a business partner!! Life Partner is quite sweet.

Now we have marriage (same and opp sex), civil partnerships, unmarried long term couples and girl/boyfriends maybe we need a new word we can all use.

Moon and stars has my vote

All this this "oh, you won't know whether it means business partner" thing reminds me of the plonkers who say "but gay means happy"

Have they never heard of context? Under what possible circumstances could a mistake be made?

Lots of words have more than one meaning, and we seem to be able to manage those in ordinary conversation.

Lol at calling my partner of 36 years My boyfriend.

My DP refers to me as the missus.