Intimacy Intimacy
Wikipedia—The Free Encyclopedia

INYIMACY GENERALLY refers to the feeling of being in a close personal association and belonging together. It is a familiar and very close affective connection with another as a result of entering deeply or closely into relationship through knowledge and experience of the other. Genuine intimacy in human relationships requires dialogue, transparency, vulnerability and reciprocity. As a verb “intimate” means “to state or make known”. The activity of intimating (making known) underpins the meanings of “intimate” when used as a noun and adjective. As a noun, an “INTIMATE” is a person with whom we have a particularly close relationship. This was clarified by Dalton (1959) who discusses how anthropologists and ethnographic researchers access ‘inside information’ from within a particular cultural setting by establishing networks of intimates capable (and willing) to provide information unobtainable through formal channels[1]. AS AN ADGITIVE, “intimate” indicates detailed knowledge of a thing or person (e.g. “an intimate knowledge of engineering” and “an intimate relationship between two people”)[2].