45 articles
Negging
Negging is a backhanded compliment or subtle insult used to undermine someone's confidence and make them seek approval. Originating in pickup artistry via Mystery and Neil Strauss's The Game, it differs from teasing and gaslighting.
Patti Stanger
Patti Stanger, the Millionaire Matchmaker, is an American third-generation matchmaker who founded the Millionaire's Club in 2000, starred in Bravo's The Millionaire Matchmaker (2008–2015), and returned on the CW in 2024.
Personal advertisement
Personal advertisement (lonely-hearts ad): a classified notice seeking a romantic or marriage partner, first printed in a 1692 British newspaper, common in The Times by 1785-1800, later in matrimonial periodicals, and the direct ancestor of online dating profiles.
Romance scam
Romance scam, also called romance fraud or pig butchering when investment-based: fraud using a fake online identity to build a romantic relationship and extract money; emerged around 2007-2008, with advance-fee and crypto-investment variants.
Sadie Hawkins Day
Sadie Hawkins Day, an invented holiday from Al Capp's Li'l Abner comic strip (first appearance November 15, 1937), in which Dogpatch women chase and marry bachelors; it spawned real girls-ask-boys Sadie Hawkins dances.
Sexting
Sexting, from 'sex' and 'texting', is sending or receiving sexually explicit messages, photos, or videos by phone or internet. Key facts: youth prevalence 14.8% sending, 27.4% receiving; nonconsensual forwarding 12.0%; links to image-based sexual abuse and laws against it.
Shaadi.com
Shaadi.com is an Indian online matrimonial and matchmaking platform launched in 1996 by Anupam Mittal's People Group in Mumbai, serving about 35 million members across India and the diaspora.
Shidduch (שידוך)
Shidduch (שידוך; plural shidduchim) is a match between two single Jews for the purpose of marriage, arranged by a matchmaker called a shadchan and practiced mainly in Orthodox communities.
Simon Leviev (שמעון יהודה חיוט)
Simon Leviev (Shimon Yehuda Hayut), Israeli con man who posed as diamond heir Lev Leviev's son to defraud Tinder matches; subject of 2022 Netflix film The Tinder Swindler; convicted in Israel 2019, arrested in Georgia 2025.
Simp
Simp is internet slang for someone, usually a man, showing excessive devotion to a romantic interest without reciprocation. Clipped from "simpleton" (1903), it spread via hip-hop, the manosphere, and TikTok's 2019 Simp Nation trend.
Speed dating
Speed dating: organized brief one-on-one dating encounters with mutual-yes matching, created in 1998 Los Angeles by Rabbi Yaacov Deyo for Jewish singles, and widely used as a research paradigm for initial romantic attraction.
Swipe interface
The swipe interface is a mobile interaction pattern introduced by Tinder: users drag profile cards right to like or left to reject, and a match opens chat only when both accept.
The Tinder Swindler
The Tinder Swindler is a 2022 Netflix documentary by Felicity Morris about Shimon Hayut, aka Simon Leviev, who posed as a diamond billionaire's son on Tinder and defrauded women of millions.
Tinder (app)
Tinder is a smartphone dating application, owned by Match Group. It launched in the United States in August 2012 and is available in over 190 countries.
Zoosk
Zoosk is a behavioral-matchmaking dating site and app founded in 2007, acquired by Spark Networks in 2019 for $258M, now under MGG-owned Spark Networks; freemium with subscriptions and coins, 80+ countries.