exclusive

Before the adjective there was a phrase. To go steady, slang from about 1900 (opens in a new window), was to date one person exclusively, and the dictionary now notes that the usage may be obsolescent. The adjective took its place. Exclusive (opens in a new window), of two people, means having a romantic relationship with one another to the exclusion of others, and the example sentence the dictionary chose is about stopping.

The adjective came with a waiting room. Dating content separates dating exclusively from being in a relationship (opens in a new window): the first means one person is “not still on the prowl”, and the second means knowing what the other person wants and agreeing on it. The apps supply the schedule. By a Tinder survey reported in 2017, 61 percent of the app’s daters (opens in a new window) become exclusive within the first 3 months.

Under load, exclusive is the one stage of an arrangement defined by what has been given up. Stopping seeing other people can be done alone and announced, and the relationship, which needs 2 people, is left for a later conversation. That makes exclusive the only stage that can be entered by one party. A declaration of it costs the declarer the apps and costs the other party a word of acknowledgement, and an acknowledgement is easy to file as an agreement.

The declaration of July 1 was mine, made alone and acknowledged in 2 characters, and it was never returned to while the account stayed open. Everything after it was spent against it: 3 of the 11 dates, $1,397.65 of the $2,570.94, being 54.4 percent of the arc, and all 16 cards in the glass box, written on July 2 and 3. Her position on it is not in the file, because she did not state one and I did not ask. On September 7, 68 days after I cancelled the apps, I opened a fourth account on this site with a message sent from one.