We are handicapped in English in our 'modern' culture. We now have many people who live together without marriage. This includes the heterosexual pairs, and also homosexual pairs. To some very religious persons, 'living in sin', might be their description. To more moderate and forgiving persons, there is no word that fits the category.
The 'oldies' aren't 'goodies' in this case. 'Boyfriend' and 'girlfriend' implies something much simpler and childlike. Fianc'e implies an actual engagement with a ring, and at least marriage in the future. POSSLQ - 'persons of opposite sex sharing living quarters' has the same disadvantage as the others, no room for homosexual couples. Further, it's not very easy to remember, and a mouthful. not only to say, but in many cases explain. 'My roommate' implies a financial relationship, not a sexual one. (It may be used when the couple involved are 'in the closet', so to speak.) It's perhaps the vaguest of all these terms.
Some years ago, I was embarrassed because I couldn't remember exactly what POSLQ stood for. I had used the term in a conversation. I thought it was 'persons of opposite sex living together', and couldn't remember what the 'Q' stood for. This memory lapse caused me to think about this term off and on for some months at the back of my mind. I thought of several different words. But none seemed to cover all the possibilities well.
In a moment when I had nothing better to do, I thought about this word again. I learned long ago to simply put down on paper what I was trying to do, so I put down 'person living with another'. From that my mind leaped to the phrase 'living with friend'. This gave LWF, and that's not as simple as I wanted it. I quickly came to 'live in friend', and the initials 'LIF' make up a new word.
Note how well this covers all the various situations of couples living together, whether heterosexual or homosexual. It fits nearly all situations.
In 1953, I met an Air Force Lieutenant who had spend time living in a tent in North Africa with another Lieutenant. There was literally nothing to do much of the time, so they played word games, simply to pass the time. One day they decided to invent a new word, and spent several hours (as my friend told it) finding a word to use.
They finally came up with a new word 'ZILCH'. They finally decided that it should be a word meaning 'nothing', as they felt that they were doing in that tent. It has now become a word in the English language, and very few even know what the description of that word was originally. Being males in that time and place and circumstances, it was, of course, obscene. They finally decided on two descriptions.
1. 'A wet bag of crushed assholes'.
2. 'A crushed bag of wet assholes'.
Both, of course, mean nothing, and almost nobody knows the actual original meaning. I hope that my word 'LIF' gets even close to the circulation of 'ZILCH'. We need a word for these situations that is simple, and easy.
Phil Bate PhD - Retired Orthomolecular Psychologist
Inventor and Patent Pending Holder for
Brain Wave Amplitude Changing via NeuroliminalTraining
http://DrBate.com |
