A beginner’s guide to Gen Z dating dictionary

Our parents had a fairly simple dating vocabulary. You liked someone, you dated, and then you either broke up, or got married. Maybe there was a “prem” somewhere in between if things got serious.

Gen Z looked at this perfectly manageable system and apparently decided it needed 47 new terms.

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Take pocketing. This is when someone is dating you, but keeps you hidden from their friends and family. In Bangladesh, this can get particularly impressive. You could be together for eight months and still be introduced as “a friend from university” when you bump into their cousin at a restaurant.

Then there’s fizzing, where a relationship slowly dies without anyone officially ending it. Replies get shorter, plans disappear, and eventually, both people are technically still together, but only because nobody has bothered to announce the funeral.

If that sounds bad, meet zombieing. Someone ghosts you, disappears completely, then suddenly returns weeks or months later with “Sorry, life was hectic.” Congratulations, the dead have risen.

Roaching takes the situation further. You think you're dating one person, only to discover they’ve been seeing several others at the same time. The name comes from cockroaches, if you see one, there are probably more hiding somewhere. Quite romantic.

There’s also emotional Airbnb, which is exactly what it sounds like. It describes someone who uses you as temporary accommodation for their emotional problems. They arrive with heartbreak, unload everything, feel better and check out when they’re ready.

And before the relationship can even begin, there’s the soft launch, which is posting a suspiciously cropped arm, two coffee cups or someone’s silhouette on Instagram without revealing who they are. This kick starts the guessing game on Instagram, with each friend coming up with their own theories as to who the mystery person is.

So, if someone tells you they’re “talking to you” don’t assume you understand what that means. Ask whether they’re talking, soft-launching, pocketing you, or accidentally using you as an emotional Airbnb.

You may need a dictionary before you need a partner.