What makes a date a date? Options

[*mipadi*]

Maybe it's my relative lack of experience in the area of relationships, but there's a question that often nags at me: What makes a date a date? At first glance, this may seem like an easy answer; but it's one that seems to elude people I ask. Take, for example, these two different, yet similar, scenarios:

1. You notice a nice young member of the opposite sex with whom you go to school. You think it might be nice to take him/her out sometime—dinner, a movie, something along those lines. So you ask him/her to a movie. Is that a date or just a friendly outing, and why? How do you know? How do you make it clear one way or the other?
2. You are friends with a young member of the opposite sex. You hang out with each other on a semi-regular basis. You decide to ask him/her to a movie or dinner. Is that a date or just a friendly outing, and why? How do you know? How do you make it clear one way or the other?

[KissMe2408]

I've had a lot of friendly outings or whatever you call it. Basically me and just one guy going to see a movie or going to a play or something. But we're just friends. You both have to acknowledge that it is a date. Otherwise it's just hanging out with a friend.

(1) The first example is just a friendly outing. It's a friendly outing because you don't necessarily have feelings for that person, and you don't know if that person has feelings for you. You are just hanging out. It would be different if you both talked about it being a date. It can be unclear at times, so usually if a guy asks me somewhere I ask if it's a date. I usually make sure it's not a date so he doesn't get the wrong idea. And most of the time the guy just wants my company and we laugh and hang out. You start to call it a date when there are feelings involved and you are "courting" one another, developing a romantic relationship that could lead into possible feelings of love. Dating is much more serious.
(2) For the second example the age doesn't really matter. Even the fact that you hang out on a semi-regular basis. Asking him/her to a movie would just be a friendly outgoing as well, unless you make your intentions clear that it is a date. Unless you want it to be a date, and that person agrees as well. Usually the best way to make it clear is open your mouth and say something about it lol.

It doesn't really have to be difficult.
It's just important to have yourself and the other person know what your intentions are. If you really are going on a "date" or if it just is a nice "outing".
And if you feel like it's a "date", I wouldn't call it that unless the other person knows that and feels the same.

Or to avoid all of this. Bring another person along to be the ackward third wheel.

Which is an entirely different subject.