Based on her study of the changes affecting the understanding of premarital intimate relationships in Ukrainian villages and cities during the period of mass modernization, the author argues that pre-modern sexual practices do not correlate precisely with modern sexual practices and thus cannot be described by current lexical definitions. The modern phrase sexual intercourse has no exact correspondence to such premarital practices as poliuvannia ("hunting") and prytula ("leaning against"). They consisted of non-penetrative (or incomplete penetrative) sexual activities, rather than sexual congress for the purpose of pleasure or reproduction. Unlike modern norms, the traditional culture allowed and even encouraged premarital intimate relationships, which were understood as a sign of healthy, successful maturation. Although premarital mixed-gender sleeping arrangements were tolerated in premodern villages but condemned in growing urban areas, the percentage of premarital births markedly increased in Ukrainian cities in the late nineteenth-early twentieth centuries. The author provides a brief statistical survey of premarital births.