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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!hplabs!tektronix!reed!purtell
From: purtell@reed.UUCP (Lady Godiva)
Newsgroups: net.singles
Subject: Re: "SO" is no good (new? topic)
Message-ID: <2902@reed.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 26-Mar-86 15:47:18 EST
Article-I.D.: reed.2902
Posted: Wed Mar 26 15:47:18 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 29-Mar-86 04:38:42 EST
References: <267@parcvax.Xerox.COM>
Reply-To: purtell@reed.UUCP (Lady Godiva)
Organization: Reed College, Portland, Oregon
Lines: 28
Keywords: words definitions

In article <267@parcvax.Xerox.COM> lui@parcvax.Xerox.COM (Ken Lui) writes:
>Word-Of-The-Day: ossuary
>
>I don't know about you folks, but I just can't bring myself to use a term
>coined by the government (census bureau?) when referring to the woman I
>love.  "Significant Other" and "Spouse Equivalent" make me choke.  "SO" is a
>petroleum bi-product, for Yafa's sake!
>
>But what word is better?  

	I agree. I also tend to dislike the word "relationship" and prefer
"romance" but I do occasionally fall into the trap of using the former
word instead. 
	I usually use the word "beau", but you've already eliminated that
one. The other that I sometimes use is "love". This has the advantage of
being neutral as far as the sex of the person goes. And I think it
sounds neat. But then, I tend to use old-fashioned words, meaning slang
that was common in the 30s and 40s. (I'll still refer to a woman as
"doll" or "dame" and a man as "guy" or "fella" fairly frequently,
although, for some reason the word "chick" makes me cringe.) 

	Anyway, that's my suggestion. 

	Share and enjoy -

		elizabeth g. purtell

		(Lady Godiva)