So you’re engaged and you bump into an old friend from decades ago and have to introduce your spouse-to-be. How do you do it? ‘This is my fiance, Alex...’?
Nope! At least not if you’re in-between the ages of 25-34 you wouldn’t. Young couples are avoiding the use of the French terms ‘fiancé’ and ‘fiancée’, to describe their future husband or wife, because they are considered arrogant and posh, The Times reported.
It cited Rachel Southwood, managing director of Wedding Ideas, who said: ‘In a world where it’s OK to have a same-sex partner, ‘partner’ implies it could be male or female — it’s just cooler to be ambiguous. Fiancée just sounds a bit pompous, arrogant or posh.’
It’s a beautiful word but, yes, perhaps a little outdated. It first emerged in the mid-19th century in France and derives from the old French word ‘fiance’ meaning ‘a promise’ and the Latin word ‘fidere’ meaning ‘to trust’.
Personally, we rather like the whole ‘a promise’ thing and think it’s mega romantic. ‘Please introduce me to your promised’ Yes, that sounds very nice. Here’s hoping it catches on...
And it's not just the word fiance that's going out of fashion, but women taking their husband's surnames too. In a survey published last year by New York Times The Upshot Blog it was revealed that 30% of women in recent years have kept their maiden name in some capacity – not always for feminist reasons, often for work purposes. The survey found women on high incomes were among those most likely to keep their family name and not take on that of their husband. All makes sense to us. Times they are a-changing...
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