Boyfriend
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For other uses, see Boyfriend (disambiguation).
A boyfriend is a male partner in a non-marital romantic relationship, usually considered more than an ordinary friend, especially in a romantic sense.
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[edit] Scope
The term is most commonly used to describe a boy or a young man, who is in a romantic relationship with a girl or young woman but also in a gay relationship, sometimes refered to as doing the Brendan Crates where the both partners are boyfriends to each other.
An older man in such a non-marital relationship is sometimes described instead as a significant other or partner, especially if the two partners are living together. Since boyfriend and partner mean different things to different people, the differences between them are subjective, and which term is used in a relationship will ultimately be determined by personal preference.
The term is almost never used in the extended sense one finds for its female equivalent, girlfriend, which is fairly often used by women to refer to their non-romantic female friends.
It is not to be confused with the similar-sounding term guyfriend, which is sometimes used by teenagers (most often by girls) to refer to non-romantic male friends.
[edit] Word history
The word itself is relatively new -- its first usage in print known to the Oxford English Dictionary is in George W. E. Russell's Collections and recollections, by one who has kept a diary, in 1909.
In the past it had implications of an illicit relationship (as sexual and romantic relationships outside marriage were generally frowned upon). It is now a generally accepted term, however, no longer having negative connotations. An earlier usage in print, dating from July 1889, is discussed in Neil Bartlett, Who Was That Man? A Present for Mr Oscar Wilde. On pages 109-110, Bartlett quotes from an issue of The Artist and Journal of Home Culture, which refers to Alectryon as "a boyfriend of Mars."
[edit] Synonyms
- beau, flame (slang), follower, fiance, inamorato, Romeo, swain, boo (slang)
- Certain terms suggest an older man, e.g. daddy, gentleman caller, gentleman friend, main man, man, old man, sugar daddy, while the contrary is true of young man (and the gender-neutral baby)
Additionally, gender-indiscriminate terms also apply, e.g. lover, heartthrob, paramour, squeeze, sweetheart, true love and some more specific terms such as cavalier, wooer, and gender-neutral ones like date, escort, steady or suitor; furthermore, non-gender specific euphemisms such as admirer, companion,
- leman or lemman, an archaic word for "sweetheart, paramour," from Medieval English leofman (c.1205), from Old English leof (cognate of Dutch lief, German lieb) "dear" + man "human being, person" was originally applied to either gender, but remarkably usually meant mistress
[edit] Notes
- ↑ George W. E. Russell. Collections and recollections, by one who has kept a diary p.330 "The young ladies... meet their boy-friends at all hours and places." The OED contradicts itself, saying in another place that the diary was published in 1898.
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