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Posted By: mandysw modern courtship... - 10/11/13 05:17 AM
I have recently started internet dating, and it is very different from conventional courtship. There's low risk/investment in communication, and it is advantageous to communicate with as many as possible... so I need a term for such casual suitors (aspirants? optimists?), or perhaps a collective noun for an inbox full of them. I'm not afraid of neologisms (Shakespeare could do it... though I confess I haven't found a suitable option yet), but wonder if there are any existing words that might serve. It is also worth noting that the online dynamics of the genders are *very* different as well, so any terms should be gender-specific.

(It rather annoyed me that, last time I investigated, there were several collective nouns for groups of women--coven, harem, galaxy--but the only one I found for men was "band"... which really isn't very evocative or specific at all.)

Weird phenomena need some weird words to describe them!

Any and all suggestions on the topic are welcome!
Posted By: Buffalo Shrdlu Re: modern courtship... - 10/14/13 03:53 AM
stable?


and welcome!
Posted By: mandysw Re: modern courtship... - 10/14/13 05:02 AM
Thanks!

I do find it a rather odd situation, and conversationally awkward! It's just so dull to say "I got another message from a new guy today", or "I need to answer all the messages in my ____.com inbox" when the nature of these things is... so distinct and specific (yet hardly unique to me).

I *have* taken to referring to the blatantly unlikely applicants as "the improbables". ;-) I'm sure there are far more definitions-in-need-of-words in the world of online matchmaking... but the only topical compendium I can think of is urbandictionary (and I somehow doubt that has either the words or definitions I'm looking for...).
Posted By: Buffalo Shrdlu Re: modern courtship... - 10/14/13 01:52 PM
The Improbables or The Unlikelies...

Potentials?
Posted By: tsuwm Re: modern courtship... - 10/14/13 02:13 PM
potential is shading towards promising or likely..

how about implausible or inconceivable(!)

coinage: wrop (within realm of possibility)
Posted By: Buffalo Shrdlu Re: modern courtship... - 10/14/13 10:32 PM
Expendables?
Posted By: csperryess Re: modern courtship... - 10/23/13 02:56 AM
A sports analogy might be applicable -- the boys in the batter's box?
Posted By: Faldage Re: modern courtship... - 10/23/13 11:16 AM
Originally Posted By: csperryess
the boys in the batter's box?


Or in the on-deck circle.
Posted By: Bee Spelling Re: modern courtship... - 11/11/13 02:36 AM
UnSUITORables
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