alpha earner

eng. A wife who earns all or most of her household’s income.

укр.Дружина, яка платить витрачає на домашнє господарство все або більшу частину своєї зарплати.

За принципом аналогии утворилось a beta male

укр.Дружина, яка платить витрачає на домашнє господарство все або більшу частину своєї зарплати.

Examples

2007

While it is true that many older men seem stuck with the “man as success object, woman as sex object” idea and would never contemplate marrying a ball-breaking alpha earner, men in their twenties and thirties seem to be redefining masculinity.

—Kate Mulvey, “What modern women want: a beta male,” The Sunday Times (London), October 7, 2007

2003

They call them the new alpha earners. They are women, they bring home America’s bacon and they are set to take over.

—Joanna Walters, “America’s alpha career women leave men at the kitchen sink,” The Observer, May 18, 2003

2003 (Earliest)

Some experts use a new phrase to describe high-income female providers: Alpha Earners.

—Peg Tyre & Daniel McGinn, “She Works, He Doesn’t,” Newsweek, May 12, 2003

amatonormativity

(amato-normativity)

Відносити між закоханими,які закріплені або відображені в нормах.

Це слово утворене словоскладанням.

amatory (“relating to lovers”) + normative (“establishing or reflecting a norm”) + -ity

eng. The legal, cultural, and moral privileging and promotion of the romantic couple as the highest form of human relationship.

Examples

2014

For those of you who don’t know, amatonormativity is basically the idea that having or desiring a close, exclusive, romantic relationship is the default, normal setting for EVERYONE. It’s problematic because it invalidates a whole slew of people who may not desire such a relationship, including but not limited to aromantic people, celibate people, or single people who are just fine with being single for whatever reason they might have.

—“When did Romance become so dominant? Amatonormativity and Fandom,” If History Could Set You Free, December 4, 2014

2013

People live their key caring relationships in a multitude of ways, be this within or outside marriage. In the interests of justice, neutrality, equal opportunity, and equal respect, the liberal state should not continue to privilege amatonormativity and thereby marginalize other forms of adult caring relationships.

—Ruth Abbey, “Review of Books on Marriage, Family,” Philosophy In Review, January 1, 2013

2012

Amatonormativity, she argues, results in “the sacrifice of other relationships to romantic love and marriage and relegates friendship and solitudinousness to cultural invisibility.”

To which I reply, Let’s all be amatonormativity busters! Brake even offers a few examples of violations of amatonormativity: “dining alone by choice, putting friendship above romance, bringing a friend to a formal event or attending alone, cohabiting with friends, or not searching for romance.”

—Bella DePaulo, “Should Marriage Be Abolished, Minimized, or Left Alone?,” Psychology Today, July 17, 2012

2009 (Earliest)

Despite changing demographics, law and society still often take monogamous marriage as the foundation of the family. Even when marriage includes same-sex couples, family status depends on a dyadic, exclusive partnership. However, restricting social recognition and legal status to such partnerships benefits romantic, monogamous relationships at the expense of other caring relationships. I call the focus on marital and amorous love relationships as special sites of value ‘amato-normativity’ and argue that it wrongly devalues other instances of care.

—Elizabeth Brake, “Rethinking family: marriage and amato-normativity,” Abstracts of Papers for the 2009 Conference of the Canadian Society for the Study of Practical Ethics Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, May 25, 2009

batmobiling

pp. Putting up emotional defenses when a relationship becomes too intimate.

стр.Поставити емоційний бар'єр, коли відносини стають дуже інтимними.

Examples

2000

I love you. I love you. I love you. No, just kidding. I’m not even going to call. Talk about your Batmobiling and your general lack of commitment.

—Gordon Macmillan, “Love bug brought on an irony attack,” Campaign, May 12, 2000

1999

Meredith (Gillian Anderson) is a frosty, uptight theatre director being romanced by an architect (John Stewart), but she is, as we say in the 90s, batmobiling; her defenses are up.

—Peter Bradshaw, “Sex in the windy city,” The Guardian, August 6, 1999

1995 (earliest)

Batmobiling

Putting up an emotional shield just as a relationship enters that intimate, vulnerable stage. Refers to the retractable armor covering the Batmobile.

—Gareth Branwyn, “Jargon Watch,” Wired, July 1, 1995

Notes

This word comes from the shield that protects the Batmobile, the vehicle used by comic book hero Batman. This word first started appearing in print in 1996 as part of various slang collections. These collections, so beloved by lazy journalists and editors everywhere, are almost always words that appeared originally in Gareth Branwyn’s “Jargon Watch” column in Wired magazine (although they appear in print without attribution). This word is one of those “Jargon Watch” refugees.

beanpole family

n. A family whose living members come from many generations, but with few members in each generation.

Сім'я ,в якій члени з різних поколінь, декілька з яких одного покоління.

Examples

2002

Family relationships are expected to be dramatically altered by the ageing society. With people having fewer children and living longer, the whole notion of family will change. Widely extended families of cousins of similar age will be replaced by ‘beanpole’ families of many generations.

—Anthony Browne & Adam Blenford, “The British are getting steadily older. Hurray!,” The Observer, May 12, 2002