What is Romance?

     Well, before you can find, establish, or maintain romance, you have to know what it is—and not abstractly. We sought to operationally define romance (which is about as easy as defining love in case you were wondering). Many lively discussions ensued when talking about romance and what it was exactly, concretely, and behaviorally. Men and women had differing opinions needless to say, but we all agreed that romance was personal and intimate to everyone. We agreed that the definition of romance changes over time. For instance, what each of us thought was romantic at 15 years of age, did not hold true at 30 or 45 years of age. We ask all of you to read the below definition as we did, come up with your own definition, and send it to us. Each week we will select a “definition of the week”, and post it on this page so that all our readers can share their ideas of romance and love with one another.

      DEFINITIONS OF ROMANCE(per Webster's Dictionary)

   The Noun and The Verb
Definitions:THE NOUN

      1. Love affair, especially brief and intense

      2. Love. Sexual love, especially when the other person or the relationship is idealized or when it is exciting and intense; (the secret of a happy marriage is to keep the romance alive)

      3. Spirit of adventure: a spirit or feeling of adventure, excitement, the potential for heroic achievement, and the exotic (e.g. the romance of cruising down the Nile)

      4. Fascination or enthusiasm for something, especially of an uncritical or inexplicable kind (e.g. his lifelong romance with baseball)

      5. Story of love: a novel, movie, or play with a love story as its main theme ( a writer of cheap romances)

      6. Love stories collectively: love stories considered as a genre
      7. Medieval adventure story: literature a story of the adventures of chivalrous heroes written in verse or prose in a vernacular language in the Middle Ages

      8. Medieval adventure stories collectively: literature the genre of medieval adventure stories Arthurian romance

      9. Narrative of adventures: a fictional narrative dealing with exciting and extravagant adventures (a romance of piracy of the high seas)

      10. Fictitious account: an extravagant or absurd fictitious account of something

      11. Short lyrical piece: music a short lyrical song or instrumental composition, usually expressing or evoking tender emotions

Definitions:THE VERB
      1. tell romantic or adventurous stories: intransitive verb to tell or write extravagant or idealized fictitious accounts
      2. tell love stories: intransitive verb to tell or write stories about love
      3. think romantically: intransitive verb to think or behave in a romantic way
      4. treat somebody romantically: transitive verb to treat somebody in a special way during a love relationship or with a view to entering on one
      5. have an affair with somebody: transitive verb to have a love affair with somebody
Definition of the week:

      Romance is an experience between two people that involves all five senses (sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste) wherein both have and express mutual feelings for one another.