Interestingly, depending on where you are, these terms aren't gender-specific.
In the UK midlands it's quite common for older women to use exactly the same terms on younger men.
As someone who's not from there but spent significant amounts of time there when I was a young man, this is proper weird.
(Just for clarification, I didn't call the people using these terms weird. I'm from a region where terms like that are reserved for romantic partners or maybe your children, so it was weird to me getting adressed with very intimate terms by strangers.)
Yeah definitely very common in the UK, as you said, primarily used by older or middle aged women.
The thing is context really. There's a world of difference saying such things while holding hands and staring deeply into each others eyes, versus just giving someone a parcel and saying them with a slightly forced smile.
So they aren't weird because they aren't intended as the dictionary-definition, they're intended as a warm kind-hearted affirmation. It shows they mean well and hope well for you.
Sorry, I didn't mean that it's weird to do that, but that it was weird to me, coming from a place where these terms are reserved for actual love, and thus hearing them from a stranger was jarring.
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u/Square-Singer Aug 28 '26 edited Aug 28 '26
Interestingly, depending on where you are, these terms aren't gender-specific.
In the UK midlands it's quite common for older women to use exactly the same terms on younger men.
As someone who's not from there but spent significant amounts of time there when I was a young man, this is proper weird.
(Just for clarification, I didn't call the people using these terms weird. I'm from a region where terms like that are reserved for romantic partners or maybe your children, so it was weird to me getting adressed with very intimate terms by strangers.)