boyfriend

A boyfriend is a male partner in a non-marital romantic relationship.

Scope

The term is most commonly used to describe a boy or a young man. 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 can used in the same contexts as its female equivalent, girlfriend, which is sometimes used by women to refer to their non-romantic female friends, as boyfriend is sometimes used this way by (heterosexual) men.

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 male friends.

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.^[1]

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."

Synonyms

• beau, flame (slang), follower, inamorato, Romeo, swain, boo (slang)
• Certain terms suggest a ripe, often 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)
• Historically, the noun prick, from a homonymous verb meaning 'to stick', got in English the meaning 'pointed weapon' (1552), penis (1592) and hence (in 'My prick', used by "immodest maids") boyfriend in the 16th and 17th century, to reemerge in the opposite, abusive present sense of obnoxious male in 1929

Obviously, all other gender-indiscriminate terms for lover etc. also apply, e.g. heartthrob, paramour, squeeze, sweetheart, truelove and some more specific terms such as cavalier, wooer, and gender-neutral ones like date, escort, fiancé, 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

Notes

1. ↑  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.

Sources and references

• EtymologyOnLine
• Roget's New Millennium™ Thesaurus, First Edition ON Thesaurus.reference.com

See also

• Courtship
• Partner
• Girlfriend
• Significant other