Terms of Endearment

I started thinking about this subject when a man at the post office (whom I'd never met before) called me 'flower' the other week. I was taken aback for a moment, but then I kind of felt a bit flattered that he would speak to me in such a friendly manner. I think this sort of thing is quite common in the area that I currently live. Other words I hear often are 'love', 'sweetheart' and 'pet' <- that one is very region-specific, I think.

What do you think of them? Would you mind if a stranger called you by a term of endearment? Or would you think it is strange/uncalled for? Would you be offended, even?


ALSO

Let's name some terms that our family and friends have called us, as embarrassing as they may be.

My grandma used to call me a lot of things when I was younger, such as 'tinkerbell', 'petal', 'sugar' and 'smiler'. lol

 

I'm generally not too fussed about being called things, but being a guy it's sort of a moot point since it's more likely we call women them, than vice versa, I'm partial to calling some people love or darlin' just for the fun of it, but I don't really get called by pet names, other than sweet heart.

 

If a stranger were to call me by a term of endearment I'm sure I'd think it was weird since I didn't know the person, but I wouldn't make a fuss about it. He/She was only being nice, after all.

I'm not called by many ToE much anymore, if at all, but when I was younger my grandmother would always call me "bubba". 'Twas always a weird name, but I wasn't complaining. My late great grandfather used to call me "Charlie", which is not my name. I was eventually told that he wasn't crazy and getting my name wrong, it's just that "Charlie" was a term of endearment when coming from him.

 

Me and my fellow classmates were discussing this today, haha.

If a stranger were to call to by a term of endearment, it wouldn't really affect//offend me, it's natural here. "Chick", "sweetheart" and "petal" are the most commons ones I myself have heard and been called. I don't think I've ever called anybody by a term of endearment, I express my fondness for them in other ways, not by calling them pet names. I think there's one very region-specif words, too. I'm trying to remember it, it was very odd. Duckling? Or something? Unsure.

Anyway, when I used to live with my Dad, I was often addressed as "Foxy" or "Tink" I have no idea why, though. My Grandmother, his Mother, often calls me "Sweetheart" But she really, really drags out the "sweet" part, heh. ​

 

I don't hate being called by any endearment term, but it always catches me by surprised. The only one who ever called me anything was my grandpa, and it was only Honey for the most part, but sometimes he would call me Sweetie. I always found it strange that he would call me those, but I just humored him.

 

I call everyone some sort of term of endearment, automatically.
Normally sweetheart, or dear, sweetiepie, darling, honey.
Not sure why I do it, but I do. To my friends, to teachers (which leads to very strange looks I must say), to family, strangers on the street, everyone. For exapmle, if I walk into someone, I shall most likely say "sorry sweetheart" and smile at them. Leading to yet more odd looks.
But yesh. It is something I always seem to do, without thinking of it.

 

It depends, for me. For a guy around my age it seems a little skeezy if they're doing it a lot (sorry!), and for a girl my age it seems a bit... patronizing? But anyone older than me it's quite adorable/flattering. I don't find many people use them (perhaps because they don't want to come off as creepy), which I guess makes it more special when they do. It's always nice to help a customer at work and have them give a "thanks hun."

I myself don't really refer to people affectionately (though I do give weird nicknames sometimes...) just because I have problems doing so, for some reason, hah. But yeah, it is a bit uncommon, but I find it nice overall.

I've been called the standards ones (hun, dear, etc.), the only really specific one I can think of (which isn't really a term of endearment) is not many people call me by that name and those that do tend to be closer to me.

 

I'm only ever called Dude or Bro by friends, and stuff like Sweetie by the parents of friends. And if I'm talking to another male, I'll only ever use Dude or Bro, or if they're a certain amount of years older than me, Mister or Sir.

I almost never call girls anything but their names. I don't want them to get the wrong idea about me. In fact, the only girls I ever give terms of endearment to are people here, whom I call stuff like Darling, Miss, or Love, old school stuff. I find that more endearing than stuff like Babe or Honey.

On another note, I don't get why Baby and its variants are even a term of endearment. You're calling a person you love an infant...of course, thats just the literal meaning of the word, but I don't really understand why its used otherwise.

 

Oh God. I hated it when I worked retail and some customer -usually a guy - would call me "sweetheart" or "honey" to try to get me to do something for them. Nine times out of ten it would be something that would cost me my job.

So of course I would fire it back at them: "Sorry, sweetheart, can't break the law for you."

Now, teaching toddlers, I hear myself spouting "honey", "hun", "dear" "bud", "sweetie", more often than I would like. It's a habit I'm trying to kick, especially before my center gets visited for accreditation in the near future (we're not allowed to use pet names or nicknames as it suggests favoritism, and we can't make it look like we're denying basic needs to other children. It's considered neglect.)

 

I don't use pet names at all. And in my family, it doesn't happen. If someone were to use one for me, ot wouldn't bug me, and it has happened before. I've been called babe, and Willbear (a lot) before. :/

 

To take a guess, a baby is someone you would love and take care of. So I suppose that sentiment is there.

 

I get that, but I don't get why you would call someone that when you want to have an intimate (read: NOT JUST SEXUAL, but close) relationship with someone.

 

i don't use pet names. only when i'm joking, but i think they are belittling.

 

I seldom use them, nor are they used on me. My parents call me "son", my guy friends call me "dude". One of my best friends occasionally calls me "angel", but I guess it's more of a nickname since she doesn't call anyone else that, and only does it when we're alone.
Oh, and my cousin calls me "Chaplin" for some reason.

 

Terms of Endearments are fun. I love saying them, and depending on which one, I don't mind being called it either.

"Lille venn" is something I quite often use with women I have a romantic interest in, but also sarcastically to my male friends. It translates literally to "Little friend."
Other terms I sometimes use would have to be Babe, Honey, Darling, Beautiful, Gorgeous, Gurl (sarcastically with "attitude" and a long u)and Bastard. Also, to close female friends I might call her slut/bitch as a joke, if I know they get that it's a joke.

I occasionally get called "Klumpen" by my parents, which means "The Klump," but is somehow an endearing term... I don't mind it though, it's common to say it with their dialect. They also may call me "Lille venn" or "Prinsen" (The prince).
I've also been called whore by one of my lovely friends here at KHV, you can guess who that is.
I also get called sexy and babe by some of my female friends.

Probably more, but I can't remember it...

 

I usually think it's very friendly and a bit flattering when strangers use terms of endearment, as long as the terms aren't too personal/weird, as I think it's a polite and nice thing to do.

I can't stand it whenever family members use them though as my family has the silliest humour and consider themselves "funny" pranksters. In total I think I have about 20 different names they like to call me, which are all either names that rhyme with my name or embarassing stuff I did when I was younger.

Apart from that I love it when friends and other people use them, either for jokes or in all seriousness :3

 

i actually like terms of endearment. i've been called "champ" by some dentist i visited for the first time (which was like last year) and i'm not gonna lie, it felt good :)