Title text:
Borat came out twenty years ago this year--closer to the breakup of the Soviet Union than to today--but it honestly feels like it's been even longer, somehow.
Transcript:
Transcript will show once it’s been added to explainxkcd.com
Source: https://xkcd.com/3237/
Always sounded weird and corporate to me. Easiest to just ask what your SO would prefer to be called and not worry about what people might think when you say it
Partner sounds corporate...?
If anything, it sounds more scientific
It seems to be, at least partially, a generational thing.
I grew up in rural, conservative-town USA and am old enough to remember when "partner" was code for same-sex spouse that I'm not legally allowed to marry.
Whereas if you were in a state where you were allowed to marry your same-sex spouse, then they'd be your husband/wife.
Hearing it now, regardless of orientation, just sounds deliberately vague to some of us oldheads.
A Singaporean woman was the first person I heard refer to their opposite-sex partner as "partner" back in probably 2010 and I adopted it. I had a pretty skewed idea of marriage as a kid and it instantly changed my thinking.
Your spouse SHOULD be your partner. You're on a team facing this big stupid world together.