> 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?