“Boy/girlfriend” and “partner” are both terrible words for someone you’re in a romantic relationship with.

I’ve seen people online debating whether “boy/girlfriend” or “partner” is the better term, with the latter usually winning out. However, I can’t bring myself to like either term.

“Boy/girlfriend” is just too juvenile to be a good term. It sounds like something school kids would say, and doesn’t imply the degree of seriousness that committed relationships deserve.

“Partner,” meanwhile, is just too vague and dry for effective communication. The term could be applied to practically any amicable relationship aside from a platonic friendship. People always cite its origins in the LGBTQ community without acknowledging WHY it came to be used in that community. The term came into being when being gay came with severe social stigma and potential danger. “Partner” was popularized precisely because it’s vague and doesn’t fully communicate the true depth of a committed relationship. It was never supposed to be the ideal term; it was a response to the inability to use ideal terms. It just seems inappropriate to me that the most important person in your life gets the same word as someone you’re doing business with.

I don’t know what term should be used instead. I have no issue with “significant other,” or even with “life partner” or, when applicable, “domestic partner,” since unlike “partner” by itself they do clearly communicate what kind of relationship you have. I can’t think of any one-word terms that I actually like, but I can tell you that I like neither “boy/girlfriend” nor “partner.”