Comment by serf

1: they were never married

2: why is lover so bad?

I see the hate in this discussion for the phrase, but I don't get it.

Is it some modern thing where we're supposed to separate the concept of marriage from sex due to asexual types or some such?

legitimate question : I don't get it. I'm more than willing to avoid the use of lover, but someone at least explain it to me.

would more casual concepts like 'defacto' or 'commonlaw' be better? 'life-partner'? 'co-life strategist' ?