Boyfriend is a person's regular male companion in a romantic or sexual relationship, which falls short of a long-term committed (eg. marital) relationship. On the other hand, the term "boy friend" (note the space) can refer to a male non-romantic and non-sexual friend.
Welcome to CWAnswers
CWAnswers is your guide to the sprawling world wide web. The directory aims to provide a useful guide made by users. You can share your knowledge as well - simply sign up and edit your first entry. For questions just contact the team at support - at - cwanswers.com.
Weblinks for Boyfriend
Top 10 for Boyfriend
Things about Boyfriend you find nowhere else.
Select content modules
Boyfriend is a person's regular male companion in a romantic or sexual relationship, which falls short of a long-term committed (eg. marital) relationship. On the other hand, the term "boy friend" (note the space) can refer to a male non-romantic and non-sexual friend.
Scope
Partners in such non-marital relationships are also sometimes described as a significant other, life partner or simply partner, especially if the individuals are cohabiting. At times, since "boyfriend" and "partner" mean different things to different people, the distinctions between the terms are subjective, and which term is used in a relationship will ultimately be determined by personal preference. In 20th century United States, women were often interviewed by gentleman callers, men who would arrive at the home of a young woman with the hopes of a potential date.
Though nuanced, there is a significant difference between girlfriend and boyfriend, and girl friend and boy friend. In a strictly grammatical sense, a girlfriend or boyfriend is an 'individual of significance' with whom one shares a relationship. A girl friend or boy friend, however, is simply a friend identified on the basis of gender. Since the pronunciation is the same, these words may occur to be false friends.
Unlike girlfriend, with boyfriend it would be archaic to use it to refer to non-romantic friends (and likewise men do not use girlfriend to refer to their female non-romantic friends).
Word history
Synonyms
- Certain terms suggest an older man, e.g. daddy, gentleman caller, gentleman friend, main man, man, old man, sugar daddy, while the contrary is true of young man.
Additionally, gender-indiscriminate terms also apply, e.g., true love and some more specific terms such as cavalier, wooer, and gender-neutral ones like date, escort, steady or suitor; furthermore, non-gender specific euphemisms such as admirer, companion,
- leman or lemman, an archaic word for "sweetheart, paramour," from Medieval Briatian 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
- Users of Internet slang often shorten boyfriend to the acronym bf.
![JuJo:]](/img.php?h=daa7ef04ebae9bef00cbeb36a7c51791.jpeg)
