"Sambo"

I looked up the English translation of the word "sambo": co-habitee, co-habiter, person with whom one lives, partner, common-law spouse. Of these, "partner" is the only one that comes close to being usable in a social context. And yet, looking up definitions for the word "partner", I found the closest definition to be "husband or wife" and "spouse", words which indicate being married to the "partner". A neat little word like "sambo" doesn't exist in English.

The word "sambo" comes from two Swedish words, "samman", meaning "together", and "bo", meaning "home". Socially, being "sambo" carries all the status of being married since marriage doesn't imply that any greater commitment is involved. Legally, being "sambo" carries a lot of weight, even if it's not entirely equivalent to being a "spouse" - only in the matter or inheritance, I believe. In practice, all forms which request information about a spouse will use the word "sambo", since it's never of interest whether there was a wedding or not.

I was thinking about this topic when the daughter of a friend was denied entry to Canada where she hoped to join her boyfriend. It would have been fine had they been married. But, as is, she could only be admitted as a tourist with no hope of work or establishing a life there. A wedding would be required in what seems like an arcane system to define what a relationship is.

I wonder: does the lack of a word actually hinder or even prevent the conceptualization of that which it represents? For example, is my ability to appreciate snow limited by a poor vocabulary? Here are some Inuit words for snow.

I'll end by introducing another common form of Swedish relationship: "särbo", a word which comes from "apart" and "home", which refers to committed relationships of couples not sharing the same home. Should I be in a serious relationship again at some point in my future, this form sounds very appealing.