The long nights are drawing in, the clocks are set to go back and for singletons young and old, cuffing season is upon us. The race to find the perfect partner to snuggle up with through those long, cold, dark nights is on, the starting gun’s been fired and the dating landscape has the look of a discount T.V shop on Black Friday.
For those who haven’t dated in a while, those newly single and those new to the game, a whole new raft of dating buzzwords have sprung up that might be worth familiarising yourself with. You wouldn’t want to be ‘ghosted’ without being able to describe it to your friends afterwards, and you’ll want to know the requisite answer when the object of your affections asks if you’re ‘on a thing’ together.
Not intent on simply keeping you warm and snuggly through conventional, fire-based means this cuffing season, with the help of leading wood burning stove experts Glowing Embers to compile this handy guide to the latest dating buzzwords for autumn. Hopefully your new lexical resource will aid in navigating you through the dating minefield, and you’ll be snuggled up in front of one of those wood burning stoves with that special someone in no time.
Autumn 2017 Dating Buzzwords:
Amatonormativity
As in, ‘Stop being so amatonormative!’ This is the assumption that all singletons want to be in a monogamous relationship – and that they would be better off in one. Some of us don’t; but when it’s cold outside, we can see the appeal…
Bread-crumbing
This is the situation where there’s a lot of communication via text – but never any in-person interaction. They seem very complimentary, tempting you with crumbs of attention, but plans just never get made.
Benching
Agreeing to a date, then rescheduling – probably on more than one occasion. Let’s face it, they’re probably keeping their options open in case they get a better offer, and are dating more than one person at a time.
Cuffing Season
This is the time of year when ‘Netflix and chill’ comes into play. It’s that cold period between October and February when staying in is more appealing than going out.
Demisexual
A sexual orientation for those who just take a bit longer to feel attracted to someone – it’s like taking a while to warm up.
Ghosting
This can happen when you’ve met up a few times, or if things get serious. Ghosting is when a person cuts off all communication, thus ending the relationship but without spelling it out. ‘He totally ghosted me!!’
Matrimania
Used to describe the over-the-top hype of marriage and coupling – ‘I just can’t deal with the matrimania of wedding season’.
On a thing
‘We’re seeing each other’ is so old school; ‘on a thing’ is the casual dating term for 2017.
Peacocking
This is where people dress up for social media platforms like Instagram or even IRL (in real life) to attract a mate.
R-Bombed
When the person you like reads your messages – but doesn’t actually respond. It’s disheartening to see that double tick on WhatsApp, then never see those three little dots that signify they’re typing back…
Sapiosexual
A sapiosexual is a person who finds someone’s intellect to be the sexiest thing about another person. Much less messy than dealing with the physical stuff.
Slow Fade
This is where someone gradually backs away, but doesn’t just cut all ties like ghosting.
Sliding into his/her DMs
When someone tries to flirt across social media platforms like Twitter by sending a direct message (DM).
Zombie-ing
When someone has already ghosted his or her way out of a relationship – then tries to come back. An example of this happening to you would be for an ex who mysteriously vanished to then suddenly like a picture on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.
Check out their illustrated infographic here: www.glowing-embers.co.uk
