Terms, but with conditions

Dating is hard. New labels make it worse. Ghosting. Nanoship. Pocketing. Let's just focus on the people, shall we?

- Shraddha Chowdhury

Sit this one out, Cupid. The best pairing of our time is not Meghann Fahy and Leo Woodall. It’s the dating scene and the dictionary. We’ve found terms for every little behaviour that previous generations either didn’t know or dismissed. We started with Ghosting (a date who disappears halfway into courtship). Then, we coined Zombieing (when the ghoster returns). We learnt about Micro-cheating (minor flirtations), Pocketing (hiding a partner from your social circle), Nanoships (short-lived connections) and Kittenfishing (like catfishing but without a fake identity). You know how exes reappear with no intention to reconnect? That’s Paperclipping.

Sigh. All this vocabulary-building and no one’s any closer to finding a good partner. “Honestly, even as a relationship therapist, I find it hard to keep up,” says Kasturi Mahanta. “The rapid introduction of new terminology can make dating seem more complicated than it needs to be.” So, in a world of too many terms, what’s the definition of Enough?

Nuance or nuisance?