Androromantic
Androromantic is a romantic orientation describing someone who experiences romantic attraction to men or masculinity, regardless of their own gender. An androromantic person may be drawn to men, masculine-presenting people, or masculine traits in potential romantic partners.
Androromantic describes romantic rather than sexual attraction. Someone who identifies as androromantic may want to date, fall in love with, or form romantic relationships with men or masculine people without necessarily experiencing sexual attraction to them.
The term is particularly useful for people who prefer to describe their romantic attraction without referencing their own gender, as terms like heteroromantic and homoromantic do.
Origins of the Term Androromantic
The term combines "andro," from the Greek "andrós," meaning man or male, with "romantic," referring to romantic attraction.
Although exactly when it was coined and who coined it are unclear, it was documented in discussions on the Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN) by 2012. It developed as part of a broader vocabulary distinguishing romantic attraction from sexual attraction, particularly within asexual and nonbinary communities.
The term also appears in Julie Sondra Decker's 2015 book "The Invisible Orientation: An Introduction to Asexuality" as well as in other academic papers through the mid- 2010s.
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