SIGNIFICANT OTHER: Increasingly Significant Issue

[Dave Wilton]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society
> [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
> Of Joanne M. Despres
> Sent: Wednesday, April 10, 2002 4:28 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: SIGNIFICANT OTHER: Increasingly Significant Issue
>
>
> It seems to me that "partner" (less formal) and "domestic partner"
> (more formal) are the terms of choice for gays, lesbians, and
> bisexuals.  I'm not usually the first to catch on to newer trends,
> though -- maybe others have a different impression.  To my ears,
> those terms sound more to the point and less euphemistically
> vague than "companion" and less klutzily p.c. than "significant
> other."

Although in some contexts there is a possibility of confusion with a
business partner.

I know an unmarried, heterosexual couple who simply refer to each other as
"my husband" and "my wife." They figure that's their social situation and
their legal status is no one's business but their own.