Meaning
What does Alloromantic mean?
A person who is alloromantic is someone who experiences romantic attraction and feeling towards others.
It is the opposite of “aromantic”, and the romantic version of “allosexual”, a person who experiences sexual attraction.
In contrast to aromantics and demiromantics, a person who is “alloromantic” experiences these feelings regularly, and often seeks out romantic relationships.
The term used to be just “romantic”, however, this gives the impression that “romantic” is the general, “normal” orientation type, alienating “aromantics”.
Origin
What's the origin of Alloromantic?
Made up of the terms “allo-”, meaning “different” or “other”, and “romantic”. The term means “romantic for others”, as in, having romantic feelings for other people.
It was made popular by blogger Queenie on The Asexual Agenda in 2014.
Spread & Usage
How did Alloromantic spread?
The majority of people identify as “alloromantics”, and since being “alloromantic” is the norm, most people who are not familiar with LGBTQ terms doesn’t even know what it means.
Queenie, who popularized the term, argues in the blog that using such terms to describe people just creates a great divide between people with different orientations, and many other LGBTQ members agree. Therefore, the term is not often used.
In 2016, user Nai on arocalypse.com started a thread discussing exactly this issue. She refers to a poll on AVEN in which most people who experience romantic feelings stated that they do not like being called “alloromantic”.
External resources
- Aromantic Wiki – Alloromantic