What do you call your Person? Just for fun

[hotcheesetoastie]

So I read an article today from a writer who was looking at what terms there are for her significant other that didn't stick that conveyed the stage they were at in their relationship. She referenced Margaret Atwood, who had been with her partner for 46 years. Margaret's partner passed away and Margaret put out a statement saying “We are devastated by the loss of Graeme, our beloved father, grandfather, and spouse”. She thought this was interesting as the couple weren't married.

"Ooh’, I thought, ‘interesting.’ As someone who also has a long-term (although at nine years we’re amateurs by comparison) non-husband, I’m always on the lookout for ways to describe our relationship to people, without the solid, easily-recognisable parameters of marriage and children. But even in 2019, in a dictionary brimming over with new ways to sum up the ever-shifting nuances of modern life, there aren’t many".

Ive been with my partner for 6 years and we have a mortgage and a dog together, but aren't engaged. I was just curious as to what you call you partners and thought it could be a fun chat topic :) I tend to just call him my boyfriend or partner to people. It conveys enough, but I agree with the writer of the article's frustration that boyfriend can mean you've been together for 4 weeks or 4 years and that it would be nice to have something that conveyed you had moved beyond getting to know each other and were serious about the relationship, just not married (the didn't sound business-like or too formal).

www.stylist.co.uk/long-reads/relationships-what-to-call-romantic-partner-boyfriend-girlfriend-long-term-couple/338181

The options the author gave were:

Spouse
Partner
Boyfriend/girlfriend
Other Half
Significant other
Baby daddy
Companion
Fella/the old lady
My darling
My person
Preferred human
Paramour
Husband
German - "Lebensgefährte”, which translates literally as “companion through life”.
Swedish - “sambo” - which neatly describes a couple who live together but aren’t married.
Irish - “mo chuisle” my pulse
simbelgefera - constant companion
Beloved Bedfellow
Headmatch

Arse
Or pain in the arse if I’m feeling fancy

Other half isn't so bad or in any way anti-feminist! - you're talking in the context of a couple, so you have an 'other half' - it's not implying that they are the other half of you, but they are the other half of the couple/partnership that you are also in. Surely?

I used to have a 'gentleman caller'.

Those were the days . . .

Generally ‘my bloke’ but I’m Scottish and have loved being reminded of the term bidey-in. I might ask him to move In just so I can use it

My dish(y)

His name, or 'my chap', pre-kids. Nowadays we're in the known-as-parents-of-Child phase so I have occasionally introduced him as "MiniPs Daddy"

Foxesinsockses oh I would love a gentleman caller, preferably one of all of the Hemsworth brothers 😘

@Branleuse Sorry for the late reply. I find it interesting. Unconventional arrangements especially. If it works for you, then great. I do not think parents or couples necessarily have to live together.