As someone who uses it often I guess I mean it's devoid of mmm some specific aspects often seen in some stories (at least for the main pairing). The romance is not toxic, abusive, forceful, there is no rape. There is respect and things are properly discussed and issues are addressed etc... Even if there is a tragic past or bad side characters at le...... reply
It can be helpful to supply a sentence to provide context as some words can have more than one meaning, but if describing a story I would think it may be trying to imply the story is 'positive', and not wicked or deprived. reply
It originated in earlier English (I guess around the 1800s?) as meaning 'clean' or 'pure' or 'virtuous' or anything that family or kids could enjoy. (Basically stuff that isn't R18, but there is some R18 out there that people might call wholesome, too, just because it's 'softer'.)
Fandom kind of took it as the 'pure' and 'cute' definition and start...... reply