Take your partners...

Anything but ‘soulmate’ - I find that just cringey! ?

I don’t know but when someone on the phone asks about my partner l immediately say: “my husband, you mean.”

Yeah. Calling my bloke my boyfriend is yuck. As is lover (cringe). Partner's the best of a bad job.

I think husband and wife is fine. Partner suits all relationships. Husband and wife for same sex relationships seems odd.

I find it odd when a man refers to his 'husband' or a woman to her 'wife'. I don't have a problem with same sex marriages and very much feel that people who commit their lives to each other should have all the protection in law that opposite sex partners have.

However... I do feel strongly that I have a husband, not a partner and that the use of 'husband' and 'wife' in same sex marriages takes away from my status.

We need a new term that doesn't include gender and is more inclusive - 'spouse' perhaps.

We're husband and wife, not hubby, hubster, hubs, wifey, the little woman, etc, all of which make me shudder!
Although we've been very happily married for almost forty years, we have unusual 'pet' names for each other...
He's 'Arfur' because he has a tendency to leave jobs 'arf done'.
I'm known as 'Anwen' as in 'Anwen' you've finished mowing the lawn you can start on the weeding, 'Anwen' that's done, the fence needs painting, 'Anwen' etc............

In other circumstances, I suppose 'Partner' is the best of a bad lot!

What if you are in your 30s and just met the person?

Partner has a more long term ring to it.
I think bf/gf is appropriate in this case
Many relationships are not exclusive till a certain period of time happens

If I were married to a woman, no issues at all calling her my wife. It is the proper name for a female who is married (if she agrees to be called that)

no issues with husband or wife in a "gay marriage" I do have an issue with the term GAY MARRIAGE.Marriage is marriage whoever the couple are so when my neice talks about her wife I can only be delighted they finally managed to get married after 30 years together .
Talk of tiers of marriage is horrible,their union is as valid as everyone elses .We wont move forward to a normal life for the people who struggled to get that certificate if we try to make theirs second class .It certainly doesn't change the "status" of my marriage or of yoursSeptimia
Surely we're past the "gay" label ?They are just two people who want to spend their lives together

I use the terms Other Half, Partner and Husband interchangeably.
In Scotland we use the term "bidie in" for unmarried couples who live together. I happily use that too.

Not on here you shouldn't Espee I was told bidie in was a derogatory term .Must be my working class roots showing...lol

Juggernaut
I love that.
I find it difficult to find the right term. Our thirty year old daughter is separated from her childrens father, and is now with someone in his forties.
Boyfriend sounds ridiculous, partner sounds too permanent, I mean he may be permanent, but he may not.
With no better ideas we refer to him as R…. s Fancy man.

Diane Abbot was once described on Gransnet as Corbyn's bidie in - I thought this was a derogatory term and said so.

Sounds derogatory to me but I'm not a Scot and stand to be corrected.

I don't think it matters how people want to refer to the person they live with. It's their choice. An 88 year old lady I used to know had a man friend. He was 89 so a bit old to be her boyfriend.

Interesting Paddyanne, I don’t think of “bidie in” as being derogatory at all, I quite like it. I’m in Scotland too.

Companion?
I don't mind a man referring to his husband or a woman referring to her wife because it clarifies the situation, much better than partner which can be confused with a professional relationship.

Personally I have a gentleman caller

We’ve been walking out for about 25 years but I’ve never been his bidie in.

paddyann54

no issues with husband or wife in a "gay marriage" I do have an issue with the term GAY MARRIAGE.Marriage is marriage whoever the couple are so when my neice talks about her wife I can only be delighted they finally managed to get married after 30 years together .
Talk of tiers of marriage is horrible,their union is as valid as everyone elses .We wont move forward to a normal life for the people who struggled to get that certificate if we try to make theirs second class .It certainly doesn't change the "status" of my marriage or of yoursSeptimia
Surely we're past the "gay" label ?They are just two people who want to spend their lives together

I do agree. People are people, marriage is marriage. Let's put this 'gay' labelling away for good.

I think paramour is a good word for a man or a woman.

He's 'Arfur' because he has a tendency to leave jobs 'arf done'
I'm known as 'Anwen' as in 'Anwen' you've finished mowing the lawn you can start on the weeding, 'Anwen' that's done, the fence needs painting, 'Anwen' etc

And in my case he’s ‘inactionman’ !

‘A gentleman caller’.
I like that Lucca !
I dislike the term ‘babe’ which is common amongst young people of both sexes.

Someone once asked me where my partner was. I said “I didn’t do dancing.”

It did seem strange at first to hear ‘his husband’ or ‘her wife’ because we’d never heard it before, but now it’s normal. I’ve no issues at all, never had, even before it became ‘acceptable’. ‘Partner’ for all unmarried couples.

Presumably a man can be a bidie in too?

I don't have 'issues' with any of the terms mentioned. People can use whatever words they like.