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Re: Special friendships -- ChatGPT

Posted by Bromios on 2026-March-13 16:59:29, Friday
In reply to Re: Special friendships -- ChatGPT posted by Manstuprator on 2026-March-13 09:28:22, Friday

You're letting GPT take you on tangents, and you got me sucked in. Quizzing GPT on "special friendship" and it's contemporary meaning:

"In many contexts, 'special friendship' is a euphemism for a relationship that has romantic feelings but may not be openly labeled as dating."

and

"In older British boarding school language, 'special friendship' sometimes referred to intense emotional attachments between students, occasionally implying romantic or same-sex feelings. Schools sometimes discouraged these relationships."

Asked if "special friendship" is a common contemporary expression:

"No—it is not a particularly common expression in contemporary everyday English, and most speakers do not use it with high regularity or confidence."

Quizzed further on connection with "homosexuality":

"In British and European boarding-school settings from the late 19th to mid-20th centuries, the phrase “special friendship” was sometimes used by school authorities to describe intense attachments between students of the same sex, especially boys."

However:

"Today, if someone casually says 'special friendship,' most listeners do not automatically interpret it as referring to homosexuality." Today, "that association is weak and uncommon, and the phrase is usually interpreted simply as an unusually close friendship unless the context clearly suggests otherwise."

So maybe a glossary term explaining its earlier Boarding School use would be justified, but not as a general expression. (According to G(od)PT, that is.)

I still think the remaining glow the term has comes directly from Peyrefitte's Les Amitiés Particulières.

But if we're looking for a revival, I vote for Errant's "Peculiar Friendship" -- I could quite enjoy one of those.


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