Therefore, I did a small a pilot study, searching a small corpus of the Browning love letters for words that, according to the OED, were used as terms of endearment in the nineteenth century: angel, baby, beloved, darling, dear, dearest, honey, heart, love, lover, precious, sweetheart, treasure.Therefore, I did a small a pilot study, searching a small corpus of the Browning love letters for words that, according to the OED, were used as terms of endearment

When was the term boyfriend first used?

1909 Etymology Online dates the term “boyfriend,” meaning “womans paramour,” to 1909. However, the term has an earlier platonic sense.

What were girlfriends called in medieval times?

A medieval singlewoman (also unmarried, unwed, spinster, husbandless, maiden) is a woman born between the 5th and 15th century (c. 400 AD – 1500) who did not marry. This category of singlewomen does not include widows or divorcees, which are terms used to describe women who were married at one point in their lives.

What do old people call their partners?

As for suggestions for other terms senior people (or any people) could call their non-married romantic partner: Partner. Significant other. Gentleman/Lady friend.

Where did the term boyfriend girlfriend come from?

I started at Websters English Dictionary and, according to them, boyfriend and girlfriend both got their start—in simply the sense of “a friend who is male/female”—in the mid 1800s. “Boyfriend,” came first, attested in 1822. “Girlfriend,” came later, in 1859.