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Joined: Feb 2006
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stranger
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OP
stranger
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> I have a word question. It seams that many of my friends and family have significant others with whom they've been with for extended periods of time, without being married. In conversation, I find it cumbersome to describe so-and-so as my mother's Significant Other. Boyfriend or girlfriend has an adolescence to it that doesn't really describe it correctly. Significant Other is a long phrase, that, with the state of marriage these days, seems to be coming more common. Is there a word in our language that describes this situation? Or, is there a word from another language that we should adopt to better describe a long term unmarried partner?
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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dalehileman
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addict
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addict
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There's nothing that I wouldn't do
If you would be my POSSLQ (poss-el-cue)
You live with me and I with you,
And you will be my POSSLQ.
I'll be your friend and so much more;
That's what a POSSLQ is for. - Charles Osgood
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Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
and for those not in the acronymic know, POSSLQ : Person of the Opposite Sex Sharing Living Quarters. this supposedly came out of the Census Bureau, and had some cachet during the 80s, but hasn't really caught on. (it is, however, in the AHD, without comment on its origin.)
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Posts: 1,981
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
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I'm pretty used to the term "partner" being used to describe significant other, married or otherwise in the UK, although the term of choice tends to be a guide to the right-on-ness of the group. I remember being asked in the US why I would use the term partner even though I am married, It's probably because I work in a sector where there are seem to be more non-traditional relationships than traditional ones.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Quote:
wordwizard
And, oddly enough, you never hear prescrips puling and micturating about how "significant other" is grossly misused and terribly transmorgrified from its original meaning. Go figure.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Gosh. I tend toward prescriptivity and I would use the phrase "significant other" only in a way which made it clear that I was mocking its use at all.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Sponsored by: Been burned by love? Check out our Ex-Boyfriends in Hell votive and candle only $6.99 
formerly known as etaoin...
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Quote:
Gosh. I tend toward prescriptivity and I would use the phrase "significant other" only in a way which made it clear that I was mocking its use at all.
And what would be the mocking meaning that you would intend?
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2001
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"significant other" is one of those terms that are useful in psychology, and that the profession, by its nature, unfortunately popularizes.
edited for clarity
Last edited by inselpeter; 02/25/06 06:28 PM.
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