Positive words to describe your significant other

I'm writing this on Valentine's day, because that's when I thought of it, but it's a timeless thought.

If you are talking or writing and want to refer to your significant other, in laws, or other people who matter to you, what words do you use? Chris Kott, here on Permies, always makes me smile, he always refers to his lady as "my much better half." Maybe I have been in too many bad relationships, but I can't even imagine how good it would feel to know that's what the man in my life called me publicly. That is SO cool.

And other close relationships? I have been "my son's girlfriend" and "my daughter out of law" (I like that one!) I have called a lady "the mother of my niece and nephew" (instead of "my sister's husband's first wife") and refer to my friends, nieces and other girls using variants of "The wonderful Miss Allison" "My sweet Marie" and "the most wonderful lady I know."

I think it might be useful to look at what you call people and think about it's effect on their self esteem.
What words would you love to hear used for you? What words do you call your significant others?

.....I had a girl friend who would introduce me like this: "This is my lover"

I _really_ liked that  :)

My wife and soulmate is sweet, kind, warm-hearted, genuine, loving, and sweet.  I knew she was the one the first time she walked up behind me, placed her hand on my shoulder and said “Hi Eric.”

I thought that I knew what love was before that moment but I was wrong.  This sounds cliche but is absolutely true, when she first touched me I felt electricity, like a very pleasant shock.  I still feel it when she touches me but not like that first time.

I knew she was the one at that moment and I remember it vividly.  It was at my little sister’s wedding.

Eric

Today is our 35th Valentine's day.

I call her beautiful, kind, brilliant, dedicated, and trusting.

In conversation we call each other "Dear" and "Sweetie".

My much better half thinks it's pretty cool, too.

I didn't think anything of it, really. I just needed something with more gravitas than girlfriend, and more passion than partner. It's also fairly representative.

Nobody's perfect, but she's closer to it than me, so she's my better half. If I flatter myself, so be it.

-CK

Let's see, when my husband and I were dating, we wanted something different than "girlfriend" or "boyfriend"--those terms seemed so juvenile and short-sighted. We weren't dating frivolously--we were both thinking long-term. So, we called each other "Beloved." This always seemed a little too formal, but there wasn't really a perfect term.

We used to email back and forth a bunch when dating, and I called him my Knight in Shining Olive Armor (his favorite color is olive) and he called me "Lady of the Lavender Groves" (I like purple.)

Once we got married, he stated calling me "Mittes" so I called him "Mitter." We like to be silly!

Now we have kids, so most of the time we call each other "Mama" and "Dada" because it's easier for the kids (and for our brains, so we don't have to remember which pronoun to use in which situation).

I always liked how my Mother-in-Law called me her Daughter by Marriage. I called her Mommanie, because it rhymed with her name, and "Mom" was a term for my own mother. But Mommanie had a huge role in my life, and so deserved her own special title! Now she's my kids Grandmommanie.

Our kids have had so many nicknames over the years, from "Fuddy Duddy Budy Magile-a-Cudy" to "Littles McSpittles With Raisins on Top" and "Dudey Computey" and "Oney-one."

Silly names are fun! And, life is stressful and we'll take all the fun we can get!

Steve Mendez wrote:Today is our 35th Valentine's day.

We are two years behind you Steve:)

We were together for six years before we got married so I soon as we finally got married, called him husband when I wasn’t using his name and 33 years on, we still call each other husband & wife😘.

He is my best friend and sternest critic.

This is the second valentine's day I've been with my new partner, and we spent quite a while at the start trying to figure out what word to use to describe each other.

Generally, for English speakers, we use partner. For the local Portuguese, we use companheiro, which means companion and seems to describe the relationship must better to the locals, who still tend to see me very much as a widow.

We've known each other since childhood, but somehow girlfriend and boyfriend seem totally, utterly not right to us by this stage in our lives.

I think the aim of the relationship is to aim at soulmate, but I suspect it will be a few more years until we reach that stage.

To my son, he uses my name. Unless I've been misbehaving, when it becomes your mother. To the dog, he uses mummy. To me, it's usually 'Hello you...', which probably looks bad from the outside, but then neither of us are very bothered about what others think.  I tend to say the same to him, too. We're an odd, misfit couple. And we like it like that.

This is the first year I haven't bumped up under the valentine's tree thread. Mostly because I think I should concentrate on the future now instead of dwelling on the past. No new valentine's rituals have been established yet, though maybe at the new place we'll create something. Possibly involving putting up a slate bench under the lemon tree we just planted and counting the trains going past.

Slightly OT, but a couple of fun facts about my wife and myself.

1). We don’t remember when we first met (and no, alcohol/drugs were not a factor)

2). We did not live within 100 miles of each other until we were married (and one might say we did not share the same residence until about a week after we were married)

3). We lived in our first home together for 5 days.

Eric

John is, in my permies posts, most often 'hubs'. When addressing him directly, it's usually 'Honey', 'Sir', or 'my Liege'. Playfully, it's 'mean-ass-little-shit!' and I use his given name (as a direct means of address) rarely enough, that it feels odd, on my tongue, lol. In talking to the critters, it's 'Daddy'. Our kids are all grown, so to his kids, it's 'your dad', and to mine, it's 'John'. Introducing him, it's usually 'my husband, John', but situationally, 'husband' may be prefaced with 'sweet', 'wonderful', 'brilliant', 'awesome', 'amazing', or 'goofy' (especially if they've just witnessed him doing something funny).

He usually just calls me by my name, though in talking to the critters, he calls me 'Nommie'. The first time he called me that, I looked at him, obviously confused, so he explained, "You're Nommie Bringeruvda Noms!" It stuck, and now, it's even my screen name, on another site, lol. He calls me his 'Hippie-wife', in reference to my outspoken tree-hugging, herbalist, anti-establishment ways, or his 'beautiful wife', 'keeper of the calenders', 'my secretary', or 'The Redhead'. Other times, it's 'kitten' (privately) or 'pet-wife' (more publicly), because he enjoys spoiling me, like a beloved pet. While I love hearing those two from him, on the rare occasions when others have used 'kitten', those folks have been met with a very icy 'who tf do you think you are' response, even life-long friends!  

Oh, yeah. I almost never use her name. I just call her Love, and she calls me Darling. And sometimes it's the other way around.

-CK