The term dating began to come into common usage in the 1920s in North America. It caught on and subsequently became popularised in Europe and the rest of the world. In much of the world, the more formal term courtship was still widely used until the 1970s. Essentially, to date someone means to arrange a date in your diary when you are both free to meet. The romantic or courtship connotations are implied. As such, it is possible to use the term dating in a purely platonic sense. For example, two or more friends might set a date to catch up with one another with no suggestion of intimacy.