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A boyfriend is a person's regular male companion in a romantic and/ or sexual relationship,[1] although normally not in long-term committed (e.g. marital) relationships, where other titles (e.g. husband, partner) are more commonly used.
The term "guy friend" can refer to a male non-romantic and non-sexual friend.
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Partners in committed non-marital relationships are also sometimes described as a significant other, life partner or simply partner, especially if the individuals are cohabiting.
At times, since boyfriend and partner mean different things to different people, the distinctions between the terms are subjective. How the term is used will ultimately be determined by personal preference.
Though nuanced, there is a significant difference between girlfriend and boyfriend on one hand, and girl friend and boy friend on the other. In a strictly grammatical sense, a girlfriend[2] or boyfriend[3] is an 'individual of significance' with whom one shares a relationship.
In the early to mid 20th century, in the US, women were often interviewed by "gentleman callers", single men who would arrive at the home of a young woman with the hopes of beginning a courtship. Boyfriend thus had implications of an illicit relationship (as sexual and romantic relationships outside marriage were generally frowned upon). As more casual courtships and relationships grew common and accepted, the term lost its pejorative intonation.
In literature, the term is discussed in July 1889 in Neil Bartlett's, Who Was That Man? A Present for Mr Oscar Wilde. On pages 108-110, Bartlett quotes from an issue of The Artist and Journal of Home Culture, which refers to Alectryon as "a boyfriend of Mars".