It's not a nanoship, which I've covered before in "A Funny Bone to Pick." It's not a situationship, which I've also covered previously. No, this time I'm talking about an explorationship. It's a dating term that's emerged to describe a relationship status designed to serve as a possible prelude to a committed relationship, certainly more so than the first two pieces of "ship" mentioned. Let's explore, then, how explorationships might work and not work.

An explorationship is when you and someone else are exploring the possibility of a committed relationship. You've gone a little—or maybe a lot—beyond the just-going-out-on-dates-with-each-other phase. There may already be kissing and holding hands. There may already be couple-ish things that you do together. There may even be a little bedroom rodeo stuff or a lot of it. But you still aren't quite ready to call each other a significant other yet—even though the two of you are giving such a possibility significant consideration.

Giving this phase a name can extend the non-committal dating phase and, in turn, reduce the pressure to rush into things. At the same time, the name signals to each other that there is a clear endgame in mind. That it's not a nanoship, which is a very brief, fleeting, low-pressure romantic........

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