> On Fri, Aug 16, 2002 at 01:29:03PM -0500, David Dyer-Bennet wrote: > > > "ongoing emotional/sexual entanglement". A one-night stand is not a > > relationship. Being married for 20 years is a relationship. Being > > engaged is a relationship even if you haven't gotten into sex yet. So > > "lover" isn't right (and is still Too Much Information in many > > contexts), "fiancee" is wrong these days, "significant other" means > > close to the same thing but is longer. I'll agree a one-night stand is not a relationship, at least how I think of the term. But out of curiosity, can a friendship be a relationship, or do I have a relationship with a friend? What about long-term dating with or without sexual entanglement? As a person who defines myself as polyamorous, I'm always hard-pressed to "define" my relationships with others. Are we boyfriend/girlfriend? Lovers? Dating? Casual "friends with fun-stuff on the side"? "Relationship" is vague, but it holds less stigma* than other words, and it's hard enough explaining multiple loving partners to people as it is... :) * - May be the wrong word, but I've been told I'm a master malapropist, so at least I have a lame excuse...<grin> Chris "So farewell hope, and with hope, farewell fear, Farewell remorse! All good to me is lost; Evil, be thou my Good" - John Milton - 'Paradise Lost'