So according to [Can someone break down かのじょ and かれ for
me?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/34534/can-someone-break-
down-%e3%81%8b%e3%81%ae%e3%81%98%e3%82%87-and-%e3%81%8b%e3%82%8c-for-
me/34536#34536) it seems that 彼 and 彼女 are words that only came to mean
"he"/"she" due to the influence of the West. But I'd like to know a bit more
about how those third person pronouns came to mean boyfriend/girlfriend. Some
preliminary research indicates 徳川夢声 might be behind the reason for 彼氏 and 彼女,
but if any additional light/specifics could be shed on the top that'd be great
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question
etymology
What is the etymology behind 彼氏(彼) and 彼女 meaning boyfriend/girlfriend?
Let's look at these two in turn.

### 彼氏【かれし】

According to Shogakukan's 国語大辞典【こくごだいじてん】 (KDJ) entry
[here](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%BD%BC%E6%B0%8F-468384#E7.B2.BE.E9.81.B8.E7.89.88.20.E6.97.A5.E6.9C.AC.E5.9B.BD.E8.AA.9E.E5.A4.A7.E8.BE.9E.E5.85.B8),
彼氏 initially meant just "that person", derived as 彼【かれ】 + honorific person
suffix 氏【し】. Apparently the honorific was used a bit ironically, and the term
was actually intended as a slight pejorative. If the entry is anything to go
by, it appears in texts starting from 1929, in one of
[徳川【とくがわ】無声【むせい】](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%BE%B3%E5%B7%9D%E5%A4%A2%E5%A3%B0)'s
works.

A bit later in 1934 in a piece by 永井【ながい】荷風【かふう】, we see usage in the sense of
"boyfriend, male lover". This appears to be a straightforward extension of the
meaning "fellow, guy" in usage patterns like "she's got a _guy_ , that's her
_fellow_ ", where the "boyfriend" sense arises out of context. Compare German
usage, where _Mann_ literally just means "man", but in the context of talking
about a woman's relationships, it also means "husband". (The English term
_man_ is also used the same way, albeit in a more informal speech register.)

I suspect that both terms were in common use before either publication
appeared.

### 彼女【かのじょ】

Here's the [KDJ entry
link](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%BD%BC%E5%A5%B3-465534#E7.B2.BE.E9.81.B8.E7.89.88.20.E6.97.A5.E6.9C.AC.E5.9B.BD.E8.AA.9E.E5.A4.A7.E8.BE.9E.E5.85.B8).
Use in the "she" sense as a female third-person pronoun shows up in 1885.

Then the "girlfriend, female lover" sense shows up later, and is recorded in
the 1931 ウルトラモダン辞典【じてん】. I don't see any usage examples from that time, but
again, my hunch is that this too was an extension of the earlier "she"
meaning: "he's got a _girl_ ". Compare German usage, where _Frau_ literally
means "woman", but in the context of talking about a man's relationships, it
also means "wife".

Once again, these meanings were probably around for some time before they were
put to print.
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answer