[blitzd]

While that may be true in the definition of a relational database, that is not generally what is meant by an ORM. The relationships between objects are a key part of what an ORM would provide.

[rantanplan]

Actually it's exactly what is meant by ORM.

Object Relational Mapper: It maps Objects to Relations.

Everything else is just auxiliary functionality.

Although I get what you're saying, and indeed the facility you describe is very convenient, it's not what the term means.

I'm just pointing that out because obviously people conflate relation(which comes from relational theory) with relationships.