Partner

Tonto with his partner.

"Partner". It used to be a word reserved for solicitors and The Lone Ranger. Then somewhere along the line its usage changed so that gradually "partner" became a term you could use to describe your live-in lover, your boyfriend or girlfriend.

I first heard the word being used in this new way about twelve years ago by a whirlwind science teacher called Mark Kelly. He was from the Isle of Man. Several times he'd drop "my partner" into conversation without the accompaniment of a personal pronoun. "My partner likes cheese on toast" or "My partner does all the washing and ironing". Naturally, I concluded that he was gay because in my previous experience of life and language, young men had always referred to their lovers as their "girlfriends".

To me the word "partner" implies a businesslike relationship, as if embarked on some kind of a mission together. I don't like it. I still prefer "boyfriend" or "girlfriend" for unmarried couples. "Lover" would also be better. Like tattoos and the consumption of pizza, language can be like a virus that spreads so that gradually the term "partner" has become an unquestioned fixture in common usage.

Over the last ten years several other irritating words have followed the example of "partner" to gain acceptable footholds in common usage. Two other examples that occur to me off the cuff are "gifted" and "stand-out". The wealthy entrepreneur gifted an art gallery to the city of his birth. Why not simply "gave" or "donated"? And Rooney was the stand out player of the tournament. Why not: Rooney was the most outstanding player?

The English language is forever evolving with new words being embraced or introduced from other languages. I think that that is wonderful and it's partly what makes the language so rich and fascinating. Ultimately, I guess I will have to give in to "partner", "gifted" and "stand out" but I swear that I personally will never use those words in the irksome ways described above.