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Significant other (or SO) is colloquially used as a gender-blind term for a person's partner in an intimate relationship[1] without disclosing or presuming anything about marital status, relationship status, or sexual orientation, as it is vague enough to avoid offense by using a term that an individual might consider inappropriate (e.g. lover when they consider him a boyfriend, or girlfriend when they consider her a life partner).
In the United States the term is sometimes used in invitations, e.g., to weddings and office parties.
Its usage in both psychology and sociology is very different from its colloquial use. In psychology, a significant other is any person who has great importance to an individual's life or well-being. In sociology, it describes any person or persons with a strong influence on an individual's self-evaluation, which are important to this individual, as well as reception of particular social norms. This usage is synonymous with the term "relevant other" and can also be found in plural form, "significant others". This use of the term has become common in the UK in correspondence from hospitals, e.g., "you may be accompanied for your appointment by a significant other."
In social psychology, a significant other is the parent, uncle/aunt, grandparent, or teacher—the person that guides and takes care of a child during primary socialization. The significant other protects, rewards, and punishes the child as a way of aiding the child's development. This usually takes about six or seven years, and after that the significant other is no longer needed, the child moves on to a general other which is not a real person, but an abstract notion of what society deems good or bad.
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The first known occurrence of the term was in 1953 by US psychiatrist, Harry Stack Sullivan, a former editor of the journal Psychiatry, in his posthumously published work, The Interpersonal Theory of Psychiatry.[2] While the term currently enjoys use and familiarity, greatest use of the term peaked in the late '80s to mid '90s and has generally declined since then in favor of other terminology as deemed appropriate. However, because much of the other terminology is somewhat cumbersome, the use of the term "sigo" is beginning to gain some popularity.
The current usage of significant other has come into the modern vernacular often referring to a person who is more than a boyfriend or girlfriend but not yet a husband or wife.