338 articles
Elopement
Elopement: running away secretly to marry, historically without parental consent; now also a small intentional wedding with few or no guests, plus an unrelated care-facility departure sense.
Elsa Einstein
Elsa Einstein (Elsa Löwenthal, 1876–1936), Albert Einstein's first cousin and second wife, married him in 1919, managed his affairs and household, and moved with him to Princeton in 1933.
Emotional affair
Emotional affair, also called emotional infidelity: a non-sexual extrarelational bond marked by intimacy mirroring a committed relationship, sustained contemplation, and deception or opacity; hallmarks are secrecy and diverted emotional support.
Endogamy
Endogamy (in-marriage) is the rule or custom of marrying within a defined group such as a caste, religion, ethnicity, or class; its converse is exogamy. It maintains group boundaries, resources, and solidarity, and shapes genetic variation.
Engagement
Engagement, historically called betrothal, is the period between the promise to marry and marriage, once a binding legal contract and today a social commitment marked by proposals, engagement rings, and studied effects on later marital stability.
Enjo kōsai (援助交際)
Enjo kōsai (援助交際, enkō 援交) is Japanese compensated dating, exchanging money or gifts for dates or sexual services; a 1990s social panic involving schoolgirls, later shifting to papakatsu and digital platforms.
Ervil LeBaron
Ervil Morrell LeBaron (1925–1981), called the Mormon Manson, founded the polygamist Church of the Lamb of God, ordered murders including brother Joel and Rulon Allred, died in prison, and left a hit list that drove later killings.
Exogamy
Exogamy is the rule or custom of marrying outside a defined group (clan, lineage, village, caste, or language group), contrasted with endogamy. Key facts: alliance theory, Tylor's 1889 cross-cultural study, and variable genetic effects.
Extramarital sex
Extramarital sex, also known as extramarital relations or infidelity, is sexual activity by a married person with someone other than their spouse, without that spouse's consent.
Facebook Dating
Facebook Dating is Meta's free, opt-in dating service inside the Facebook app, announced at F8 in 2018, launched in Colombia then the US in 2019, known for Secret Crush, a separate dating profile, and 2025 AI features.
Fathia Nuri Khalid (فتحية نوري خالد)
Fathia Nuri Khalid (فتحية نوري خالد; also Fatiha al-Nuri) was a Libyan schoolteacher, first wife of Muammar Gaddafi (married 1969, divorced 1970), daughter of Brigadier Nuri Khalid, and mother of his eldest son Muhammad.
Feeld
Feeld (formerly 3nder) is a dating app founded in 2014 by Dimo Trifonov for singles and couples exploring ethical non-monogamy, polyamory, and kink; CEO Ana Kirova, Majestic paid tier, 20+ sexualities and 30+ desire tags.
Female-led relationship
A female-led relationship (FLR) is a relationship in which the partners agree that the woman is the main authority, with control ranging from informal to full.
Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or FLDS, is a Mormon fundamentalist denomination that practices plural marriage and split from the mainstream LDS Church after it renounced polygamy in 1890.
Gandharva marriage (गान्धर्व विवाह)
Gandharva marriage (गान्धर्व विवाह), one of the eight classical Hindu marriage forms, is a union by mutual desire and consent of the couple, without parental arrangement. Traditionally an unapproved form, it was held lawful for Kshatriyas, required saptapadi rites for validity, and its famous example is Shakuntala and Dushyanta.
Ghosting (behavior)
Ghosting: abruptly ending a relationship by stopping all communication without explanation. Also called slow fade's sharper sibling; documented in dating, friendships, and psychiatry; prevalence 13–85% depending on study.
Gigolo
Gigolo: a man paid or kept by a woman, usually older or wealthy, as companion or lover; from French gigolo (1920s English). Covers etymology, male sex work, stigma, law, and films like American Gigolo.
Girlfriend
Girlfriend: an English noun for a woman or girl in a romantic or sexual relationship with someone, or, secondarily, a female friend. First recorded 1859; romantic sense by 1922; alternatives include partner and significant other.
Glynn Wolfe
Glynn "Scotty" Wolfe (1908-1997), American Baptist minister from Blythe, California, held the Guinness record for most monogamous marriages by a man, 29 or 31; his last wife Linda Essex-Wolfe held the women's record with 23.
Grindr
Grindr is a location-based dating and social networking app for gay, bi, trans, and queer people, founded by Joel Simkhai in 2009, listed on NYSE as GRND, led by CEO George Arison, with 1.3 million average paying users in 2025.
Groomsman
A groomsman is one of several men attending the bridegroom at a wedding, including the best man; in the UK the role is usually called an usher.
Group marriage
Group marriage is a marriage form in which multiple men and multiple women form one recognized marital household, distinct from polygyny and polyandry. Best-known case: the Oneida Community's complex marriage (1848–1881). Rare cross-culturally; defined in classic ethnography and Constantine's 1971 glossary.
Half-caste
Half-caste is an offensive term for a person of mixed racial parentage, first recorded 1785–95 as Anglo-Indian from half plus Portuguese-derived caste; once a colonial administrative label, now replaced by mixed-race.
Hartini
Hartini (Siti Suhartini, 1924-2002), Indonesian fourth wife of President Sukarno, unofficial First Lady at Bogor Palace; married amid 1950s polygamy protests, mother of Taufan and Bayu, buried at Karet Bivak.
Hindu wedding
Hindu wedding (vivaha): Hindu marriage ceremony centered on the sacred fire (Agni) and saptapadi, seven steps with vows from the Gṛhya Sūtras; legally complete at the seventh step under India's Hindu Marriage Act 1955, with wide regional variation.
Hinge (app)
Hinge is a mobile dating app founded in 2012 by Justin McLeod, branded "the dating app designed to be deleted" for relationship-focused dating with prompt-based profiles. Owned by Match Group since 2018; led by CEO Jackie Jantos since December 2025.
History of dating services
The history of dating services covers paid matchmaking from matrimonial ads in late 17th-century British newspapers, through 1960s computer dating, to the first online site in 1994.
History of miscegenation
History of miscegenation: US laws against interracial sex and marriage from 1662 to Loving v. Virginia (1967), covering colonial statutes, the eugenics-era Racial Integrity Act, and repeal timelines.
Honey trapping
Honey trapping (honeypot, sexpionage): using romantic or sexual relationships to extract secrets, recruit assets, or blackmail targets. Cold War sparrow/raven and Stasi Romeo-spy programs; now digital via dating apps and social media; also a criminal romance-scam method.
Hookup culture
Hookup culture: norms of casual sexual encounters without relationship commitment, associated with US college life. Rooted in 1920s socializing; GSS data show no increase in partners or frequency versus earlier eras.