Terms Of Endearment: What Are Your Favorite Food-Inspired Nicknames?

by Louise Hart
on 09/09/14 at 04:31 PM


Maybe it's because I have baby on the brain, but lately I've started thinking more about the most common terms of endearment -- and turns out, lots of them are food-related. For example, did you know that back in Shakespeare's day, "chuck" was slang for my love (from the sound of chickens clucking) and "bawcock" was a term often used to refer to a fine fellow?

Of today's food related terms of endearment, there seem to be nine main categories:

Baked Goods: words like baby cakes, cookie, cupcake, honey bun, snicker-doodle

Breakfast Food: have you ever called someone a doughnut, muffin, or pancake?

Candy: bonbon, chicklet, gumdrop, jellybean, sugar-daddy, sugar plum, sweetheart, tootsie

Desserts: pudding, pudding pie, sugar pie

Edible Animals: chick, ducky, lamb

Fruit: apricot, blueberry, peach

Savory Dishes: dumpling, hot dog

Sweet Ingredients: chocolate chip, honey, marshmallow, sugar

Vegetables: peanut, pumpkin


Other languages venture into slightly more creative territory.

French: "petit chou" or "mon chou" meaning little cabbage or my cabbage; "petit pois" for little pea; "mon cochon" for pig

Greek: "fasolaki mou" meaning my little green bean

Italian: "patatino/a" for little potato; "polpetto/a" meaning meatball

Japanese: "tamago gata no kao" for egg with eyes

Portuguese: "meu chuchuzinho" meaning my little squash

Russian: "mya morkovka" for my little carrot

Growing up, my mom called me "bumble-bee-tuna-mouse" and my dad called me "mousekin," "piglet," or "weiner schnitzel". Why don't we call people guava? Kale? Cronut? Macaron? Baking soda? Skittles? Casserole? Salmon?

What terms of endearment would you recommend? Or refuse to answer to?


11:03:11 PM on

I'm referred to as Muffin Button, but that's mostly due to an internet parody.

01:29:59 PM on

Sugar Booger.

11:45:53 AM on

Sweet potato!

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