Do you know your online dating lingo?
From the onset of “cuffing season” to “the zombie’s return,” this is the lingo you need to know about dating, rating, mating and hating in the Internet age.
Cuffing season
How we long for love. And when the weather heats up and the holidays loom ahead, even the most commitment-shy may find a steady squeeze or get “cuffed” – at least till Valentine’s Day. This popular term is likely short for “handcuffing” and relates to the old idea of a mate as a prisoner’s “ball and chain.” Urban Dictionary dates “cuffing season” back to at least 2011, but four years later the phrase was widespread enough to inspire a rap song and album of the same name. Can a movie title be far behind?
Don’t miss these mobile phone etiquette rules you should be following but aren’t.
Tuning
How do you demonstrate romantic interest in the online era? Would-be suitors will, as one keen social observer puts it, “like three of your Instagram pictures in a row (only ones with you in them, obviously), they’ll send you videos of miniature pigs [on Facebook], they’ll text you with extra letters added into the words (thaaaank you). This is flirting, but…they’re keeping things at a level of plausible deniability.”