But Rob has a point, the English language (and many others too, German among them) is/are in dire need of a term for a non-married wife or husband. Like Rob, I think "girlfriend" sounds of schoolyard, "fiancee" is intrinsically a transitional term with a best-used-before-date, "significant other" is heartlessly stilted census form speak, "mistress" intentionally denigrating and "(life) partner" anodyne. Linguists would no doubt point to the fact that the lack of a good term is no coincidence: "Thou shall not (be able to properly) name, what shall not be." Yet times change (luckily so), language should catch up.As a European I also squirm when I read about people past, say, age of 25, "dating" each other, that sounds to me of schoolyard too or of men in their 40ies/50ies in sports cars chasing women. I understand that it is ingrained in American culture, yet in German we don't even have a term for it! We use the English one since the last 30 years or so.
I'm sorry to bring this thread to the topic, but I've just bought an Epiphone Vintage Pro T-bird. Nice bass, slim and fast neck, quite hot compared to the Bach, but not so hot as my Gibson 1991 T-Bird. I will try to make some pictures tomorrow
Robert Plant and Jimmy Page (drummer and bassist of Deep Purple, Jake!)