barryg@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Lee Gold) (02/09/85)
The original poster on this didn't like the term other and suggested using hubstitute or wifstitute to specify gender. (And just when some of us were figuring out we could get a gender-neutral honorific suitable for Unix by M*.) Back in the Dark Ages when I took Psych, "significant other" meant someone who occupied a quasi-parental role (e.g. a grandparent, uncle, aunt, teacher). I'm not yet comfortable yet using it in an erotic context. On the other hand, our crowd does call commensal bedmates (i.e. sex partners with whom one shares living quarters) by a variant of the Census term. The 1980 Census referred to such people as "Person of the Opposite Sex Sharing Same Living Quarters" (pronounced POSSSL-CUE). In order not to discriminate against gays, we say "PASSL-CUE" (with an implied substitution of "attractive" for "opposite"). --Lee Gold