quirkyalone

Dictionary.com (opens in a new window) credits the word to Sasha Cagen, who first used it in 2000 in an essay for her magazine To-Do List, and quotes her definition: a person who “generally prefers to be alone rather than date for the sake of being in a couple.” Utne Reader (opens in a new window) reprinted the essay that October. By December 2003 the word had a book on the way and a day of its own (opens in a new window), International Quirkyalone Day, set on February 14.

The position was relaunched under a new name in November 2019. Emma Watson told British Vogue (opens in a new window) that she had never believed “the whole ‘I’m happy single’ spiel,” and then: “It took me a long time, but I’m very happy [being single]. I call it being self-partnered.” Within the month Dictionary.com (opens in a new window) had entered the new word as “an alternative for the word single as a relationship status.”

Under load, each name moves the unpartnered from one side of the counter to the other. The market books a single person as inventory awaiting a match. The word books the same person as a party that has looked at the stock and declined to buy, which is why its holiday was set on the market’s busiest day. The terms of the position did not change between 2000 and 2019. The name changed, which is what a name is replaced for when the terms are working and the label has started to sound like an explanation.