Amative Orientations is a term used when describing orientation. It is an umbrella term for any orientations that do not describe the gender(s) one is or is not attracted to, but instead describe how one experiences attraction. Most ace-spec and aro-spec orientations fall into this category. Examples include demi, fray, litho, etc. Amative orientations are most commonly associated with sexual and romantic attraction, but the term can be applied to any forms of attraction. For example, terms like platonicflux or greyalterous are amative orientations.
Some people will break down amative orientations further. For example, they could be broken down into situational attraction and non-situational attraction.
Amative orientations are opposed to affinitive orientations. Most of the time amative orientations are combined with an affinitive orientation (for example, demipansexual; meaning someone who can be sexual attracted to people, regardless of gender, but only after forming a close bond with them). Amative orientations can sometimes be combined with each other as well (for example, greylithoalterous; meaning someone who rarely experiences alterous attraction, but when they do they do not want it reciprocated because they will loose the attraction if reciprocated).
History
The term amative was coined by Tumblr user Neolabels on January 11, 2019.[2]
Etymology
The Latin 'amare', means "to love." "Amative," which was first introduced in 1636, was modeled on Medieval Latin amativus, from the past participle of "amare".[3]