To court someone comes from the word courtship. It describes the period of time before two people enter a relationship. Simply put – courting is the time before a relationship starts when the couple gets to know one another, exchange gifts and generally keep a respectful distance with little-to-no intimacy.

Is Courting considered dating?

To use another analogy, dating is like a comma, whereas courting is like a period. This means that dating presents a man and woman with a number of potential ends to their relationship, whereas courting has only one: marriage. Dating people view the relationship through a temporal lens.