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intimate

Bigtime

Senior Member
Arabic
Does the word intimate refers to sex relationship?
If I say,
He is my intimate friend. ( I want to point out that he is my close friend but no sexual relationship).

Thanks.
Not necessarily, though probably nowadays most people would assume that "intimate friend" means someone you have sexual relationship with.

However in the literature, it often has a subtler meaning, something like "a very very close friend", ie. someone you can tell all your secrets, someone you can always rely upon.
(In British English at least) It's one of those slightly 'risky' words, Bigtime ~ quite a lot of people will snigger if you say that. It's best to say He is my close friend๐Ÿ‘ Smile :)
Does the expression "intimate relationship" necessarily refer to sexual or romatic relationship?

The Meaning of Intimacy in Relationships (...)โ€‹

Intimacy means different things to different people.
You may have an intimate relationship that is sexual, or a non-sexual intimate relationship. You may have a sexual relationship that is not intimate, or a non-intimate, non-sexual relationship. (counsellor.ie)
The context would usually make it clear what the extent of the relationship is. No-one says anything out of context. Here, for example, the sense obvously isn't sexual:
Of all performers, Brendel understood communication and the intimate relationship between the composer, performer and audience, but his concerts were not the "free-for-all" favoured by Hazlewood, thank goodness. (theguardian)
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Does the expression "intimate relationship" necessarily refer to sexual or romatic relationship?
It depends entirely on context. The short answer is therefore no. (Romantic is spelled with an n between the a and t.)
Does the expression "intimate relationship" necessarily refer to sexual or romantic relationship?
ewie's answer at #3 is pretty accurate.
Here is the context: I'm talkiing about the poem "O Captain! My Captain!" by Walt Whitman. Talking about the relationship between the captain Lincoln and the speaker, I said that the speaker sees Lincoln as a partenal figure, not just as a political leader. Therefore, they have an intimate relationship, that goes beyond the simple leader-citizen relationship.
Whitman never actually met Lincoln. While he may have felt a strong bond from his side, the fact that Lincoln basically didnโ€™t know him precludes us from describing it as ยซ an intimate relationship ยป
I konw it, but in the poem the speaker addresses the captain with the exclamation "dear father!" and in the second stanza he imagines to hold his head on the deck of the ship.
We only use ยซ intimate relationship ยป to describe one which both parties are aware of. We can sometimes use relationship taking a purely one-sided view : Johnโ€™s relationship with women, Janeโ€™s relationship with the government. Here we are only considering how one person feels about the person, group or thing weโ€™re talking about. But in other cases we use relationship in a bilateral way, such as the trade relationship between the US and China, or a sexual relationship. We only use intimate relationship in this bilateral way, and therefore it is not appropriate to the Whitman-Lincoln example, since Lincoln had no dealings with Whitman.
Here is the context: I'm talkiing about the poem "O Captain! My Captain!" by Walt Whitman. Talking about the relationship between the captain Lincoln and the speaker, I said that the speaker sees Lincoln as a partenal figure, not just as a political leader. Therefore, they have an intimate relationship, that goes beyond the simple leader-citizen relationship.

You'd want to say something like "Whitman relates to Lincoln on a level more intimate than that of citizen-to-leader; his relationship to Lincoln is quite filial".

The preposition "with" can imply conscious, intentional reciprocity between two people; but the preposition "to" presents the relationship from the perspective of one of the parties and entails no reciprocity.
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But in other cases we use relationship in a bilateral way, such as the trade relationship between the US and China, or a sexual relationship. We only use intimate relationship in this bilateral way, and therefore it is not appropriate to the Whitman-Lincoln example, since Lincoln had no dealings with Whitman.
Exactly. There was no 'intimate relationship' between Whitman and Lincoln. Whitman just wrote a poem about Lincoln, full stop.
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