Loyalty and Monogamy

Kristin, a college professor in Dubuque, Iowa, teaches a class in the U.S. history of sexuality. She’s intrigued by the way her students increasingly use the word loyalty as a synonym for monogamy. Perhaps the word monogamy sounds more clinical, since it originally referred specifically to marriage; someone who’s monogamous is married to one person, while a bigamist is married to two. Another recent slang term for someone to whom you’re committed fully is ride or die. Even more recently, the term maining is being borrowed from the world of video games, where players choose one particular character to play most often. This is part of a complete episode.