I hate it with a cold passion, not a hot passion, mind you, because I couldn’t care all that much, really. I hate the use of the word; in fact, it’s even making me cringe now simply because it just rubs me the wrong way. At this point in time, I don’t even know what it means when people use the word partner to describe their mate. This term became universal for the pursuit of love, which just means anything a person can want it to mean, and when something is universal, does it really have any meaning? Because I sure can’t tell what people mean when they say partner. I especially cringe when married people or people in serious relationships have the word partner embedded in their vocabulary to refer to such a partnership. It makes me think these people are ultra sus when they willingly, consciously, and confidently use the word partner to describe any kind of relationship, because I think vocabulary is a very telling sign of a person’s beliefs subconsciously.

When I was growing up, I would see the usage of companion in varying mature spaces, and that word was miles better than partner because it implied something intimate and caring and someone you would always go back to be with. I don’t know when this word started being used in the mainstream, but it’s tiring now to see it pop up everywhere. Is there really nothing more unique or honest you can say about the person you’re seeing? Did we forget a large laundry list of terms used to describe your mate? Maybe people started using this term as a way of sounding cool, inclusive, or mature, but the end result is that the word partner is really a pointless term. There are plenty of relationship statuses that have been siphoned by the word partner, and it is now the primary term to describe one’s relationship. If you saw a person one time that’s a partner, if you were with a person for a few months that’s a partner, and if you’re married to someone that’s a partner as well.

It’s the year 2025, and almost now 2026, what is this? The 90s were when we were still following trends like children? You’re allowed to personalize something to your liking, and no one’s going to care if you don’t use the word partner. As a matter of fact, if you used a different term or your real preferred term, that would be a surprise because love is not a universal experience. I personally think it’s sad that no one is able to be honest anymore with who they love, and quite frankly, is unable to think for themselves and let others dictate their tongue. Maybe you are a mature person, but being unable to refer to your mate other than partner is a sad thing. Imagine if you will, a romance novel, movie, or show series...the characters, a man and woman, went through so much and they did it all together, and by the end of it all, the wannabe intellectuals amount their experience to being “good partners”. Bruh, they’re clearly much more than that, not even for example other characters in evil vs good franchises get this same level of terminology thrown at them.

I honestly couldn’t care about the word partner, and I’m not going to try to find a definition for it because it’s meaningless to me and therefore have no need to learn it. If I wasn’t able to extrapolate a sense of meaning of the word after all this time, then I’m afraid it’s that bad. What do you mean by that? Someone you simply become intimate with? A business venture capital partner? Your work partner? Your 50 50 partner? I think it’s simply the equivalent of calling a store associate an associate, and that’s all they’ll ever be to you. Partner is such a corpo word that mostly deals in the affairs of business and transactions, and certainly has no place in the affairs of love. Even in the holy bible, the New Testament, and some translations, the use of “partner” has nothing to do with love and has everything to do with the affairs of business:

1. Business Partnership— Luke 5:10 records James and John as “partners with Simon.” The fishermen’s commercial cooperation illustrates the everyday sense of the term, yet becomes a living parable of gospel collaboration that follows when Christ calls them.

2. Sacrificial Participation — “Are not those who eat the sacrifices partners in the altar?” (1 Corinthians 10:18). Eating from the altar made the worshiper a participant in the sacred act, a reality Paul uses to warn against pagan rituals: “I do not want you to be partners with demons” (1 Corinthians 10:20). Worship therefore forges spiritual bonds, either with God or with idolatrous powers.

3. Shared Suffering and Comfort — “Just as you share in our sufferings, so also you will share in our comfort” (2 Corinthians 1:7). The same word is employed in Hebrews 10:33, where believers become “partners with those so treated,” accentuating solidarity in persecution and the promise of divine consolation.


That was my little rant for a while now, since it became frustrating to hear this term, because to me, the word itself is very meaningless, and I don’t like to learn or use meaningless words. Or maybe love is dead and everyone is right in using this corpo term that’s cold and has an arbitrary meaning based on one’s understanding. But never, at any time in my lifetime, would I have ever considered using the word partner to describe anyone or anything because it’s generally a cold, detached, and emotionally distant way to distance yourself from that individual. For that reason, I believe it’s a term that’s been Trojan-horsed into our vocabulary to further diminish the power of a union between a man and woman. As the bible would have it, this union would amount to...marriage, of course, lol, but certainly not anything pertaining to a partnership, and that is essentially the wisdom of the world. Though that was just me professing what I believe to be the truth, and not just for the mere fact of marriage advocacy. If two or more people are essentially doing the same activity, then why don’t we use the word partner to describe everything as partners? After all, on what grounds does the word partner have in relationships for it to hijack the original term of partner? It doesn’t, and it’ll be silly to do in both cases, and for that reason, I’m never taking the word partner seriously again in any context unless it’s someone in a two-piece suit saying it, which is truly where its root origins are at.

To sum up my verbiage, I’m not buying the term partner when referring to relationships, and I believe we’re meant for something higher than what meets the eye on all levels.

But in closing, I would like to add that life is too short, especially one’s youth, so it should be taken seriously, as life often presents itself to be. I think life is too short to call someone or be called a maybe. I also think life is too short to be clinging to false hope.

I believe an old friend of mine told me once, “False hope is equivalent to a symbolic death”.