ThAtSo Of course you are at a loss all you re doing is repeating your opinion it s still an affair meaning in my opinion it is illicit But this is an encyclopedia article and therefore it is limited to statements of fact without statements of opinion Look if thirty years ago someone proposed to chage Oscar Wilde was a faggot to Oscar Wilde was a homosexual someone would have pointed out he still was a faggot The difference is that faggot by its connotations expresses an opinion as well as a fact while homosexual though longer and at the time less widely used expresses the same fact without also stating an opinion Similarly affair states both a fact and an opinion romantic relationship although longer and less widely used states the fact without the opinion And for that reason only the latter wording is acceptable in an encyclopedia article