Dating means no serious attachment; a relationship is a boyfriend commitment. The level of the relationship you have with another person defines dating difference between casual dating and being in an actual, committed relationship. Dating can be intimately physical; a relationship the deeper subtle intimacy.

Can I call my boyfriend Beau?

A beau is an old-fashioned term for boyfriend. When your great-grandmother was young, she probably had a beau. Beau means handsome in French.