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Boyfriend is a person's regular male companion in a romantic or sexual relationship^[1], which falls short of a long-term committed (eg. marital) relationship. On the other hand, the term "boy friend" (or more commonly "guy friend") can refer to a male non-romantic and non-sexual friend.

Scope

The term is most commonly used to describe any male person who is in a romantic relationship with another person.

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

In the past it had implications of an illicit relationship (as sexual and romantic relationships outside marriage were generally frowned upon). It is now a generally accepted term, however, no longer having negative connotations. An earlier usage in print, dating from July 1889, is discussed in Neil Bartlett's, Who Was That Man? A Present for Mr Oscar Wilde. On pages 108-110, Bartlett quotes from an issue of The Artist and Journal of Home Culture, which refers to Alectryon as "a boyfriend of Mars."

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.^[2]

Notes and references

^ Compact Oxford English Dictionary of Current English , published 23 June 2005, University of Oxford, ISBN-13: 978-0-19-861022-9 edition
^ BF - Definition by AcronymFinder

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-'''Boyfriend''' is a person's regular male companion in a [[Romance (love)|romantic]] or [[sexual relationship]]<ref> Compact Oxford English Dictionary of Current English , published 23 June 2005, University of Oxford, ISBN-13: 978-0-19-861022-9 edition </ref>, 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.
+'''Boyfriend''' is a person's regular male companion in a [[Romance (love)|romantic]] or [[sexual relationship]]<ref> Compact Oxford English Dictionary of Current English , published 23 June 2005, University of Oxford, ISBN-13: 978-0-19-861022-9 edition </ref>, which falls short of a long-term committed (eg. marital) relationship. On the other hand, the term "boy friend" (or more commonly "guy friend") can refer to a male non-romantic and non-sexual friend.
 ==Scope==