#aro terms

there's been some terms, but honestly I don't think I've ever witnessed any get big enough to say "this is it, this is the term you're looking for". I think, historically, the aro and ace communities have tried to shy away from terms with that sort of "never has that type of attraction ever" definition, in no small part because we have always had folks with just one or very weak and barely present or it doesn't make me act fundamentally different from "no" attraction types and we really, really try to avoid those folks feeling excluded.

i don't think it's inherently bad to have a term, but our communities formed while "gold star" lesbians and gays still had huge sway. If you're unfamiliar with those terms - good! I hope they fade into the annals of history. These terms refer to people who were strictly homosexual and never (not even once!) had sex with someone outside of that. and it... really was just "you must be This Type of Gay to Get Queer Rights", and ultimately was used to create/promote intense biphobia. mods here learned of the queer community through tumblr in early 2013: it was still a question if bi people could reclaim 'queer'. if bi people were gay enough to be oppressed, since they didn't have to be gay, aka exclusively homosexual.

Romance-repulsed: People may feel disgusted by thinking of themselves in a romantic situation or by seeing romantic content, such as in a movie.

Romance-averse: A person does not have any desire to enter a romantic relationship.

Romance-indifferent: A person is not against entering a romantic relationship but is not seeking it out. People may want to enter a partnership but have no preference on whether it is romantic or platonic.

Romance-favorable: A person enjoys being in a romantic relationship in specific circumstances.

Aromantic people may identify with one of these terms in the long term or fluctuate between them, or it may depend on the situation. Some Arospecs may not identify with any of these. That is okay, you are valid anyway. :)

i don't claim to be the original roots mastermind of any of these, but they all came from my own brain.

neitherfriend/nf: a partner that is neither binary gender/neither a boyfriend or girlfriend.

n/afriend/n/af: a partner whose gender is not applicable.

zerofriend/0f: a partner who has zero/no gender

xfriend/xf: a partner whose gender is not specified.

[]friend/[]f: a partner whose gender is blank, like a box with nothing selected. (said like blankfriend irl)

🐟friend/🐟f: this one was just me being a dumbass

queerfriend/qf: a queerplatonic partner

brofriend/bf: a partner who is your bro. a more joking one, as the point of the acronym is to cause confusion.

fatefriend: when you're friends by fate, rejecting the idea that destiny has to be romantic in nature.

"roommate": a reference to the queer inside joke of roommates being historically gay while not having a romantic label on the relationship. yes the quotations are part of it

lab partner: a type of partner that's by your side but not in a romantic way

partner in crime: same as lab partner

<2oulmate: a combination of soulmate and the 2 heart used in aro communities. simply soulmate without the strictly romantic connotation. please dont use this one if you arent aro <2 is important to us 🙏

teammate: a relationship where you're on the same team in life as your partner.

bed buddy: a relationship where you're buddies that share a bed.

brodude: two platonic terms mashed together that makes it seem like the nature of the relationship may not be platonic, but no one can say for sure but you and your brodude. other variations are: manbro, galpal, palbro, brodudepal

Thank you!

Hi! I completely understand where you’re coming from. There are a LOT of terms in this community and even I’m still learning some!!

QPR refers to a queer platonic relationship. It’s the concept of a relationship between a friendship and a romantic relationship. Kind of like “more” than a friendship but “less” than a romantic relationship, usually in terms of affection, though personally I don’t like saying certain relationships are “more” than others. But the label means different things to different people, so it’s hard to explain what it is in specific terms.

As for other terms you may not know, here’s a glossary from AUREA (which is a great resource for all things aro!!): https://www.aromanticism.org/en/basic-terms

Aqueerplatonic as a term exists for those who specifically don't desire QPRs and/or don't experience queerplatonic and/or alterous attraction.

Some people might include this definition when they use aplatonic, but they are not the same thing.

So, I've coined a new term and a pal, @aroaceitup renamed a term that was already existing, for reasons.

Arohaze/Aromush: a label for an arospec person who's other orientation(s) are in between, outside of or both allo and ace.

(coined by @liquidlikecats)

Arovoid: a label for an arospec person who feels neutral or nothing on their other orientation(s).

my name's wade and i'm demiromantic!!

i'm here to propose we begin calling aromantic/arospec people dandelions.

why, you may ask?

there's a simple idea/meaning to it, yellow is a color that represents platonic attraction, platonic love, or friendship, and well.. dandelions are yellow. but that's not all that there is to it.

when dandelions turn into puffs their seeds are blown away by the air. and land to grow more dandelions. this can be a form of symbolism to represent how aro people spread love and caring in a non-romantic way.

aros have a lot of love to spread!!

Please tell me about what you identify as and how you define it: