dearie

   A diminutive of ‘dear’ which is meant to be friendly but sometimes sounds condescending. It appears to be used especially by older women, as in Edna Ferber’s Showboat and Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With The Wind, where younger women are addressed in each case. In Letting Go, by Philip Roth, the following occurs: ‘“Make a little tea, dearie,” he said. What a sloppy man, thought Paul. What an unattractive played-out old lecher. How many dearies over the years had carried him his tea?’ Friendly use of ‘dearie’ occurs in The Business of Loving, by Godfrey Smith, Free Fall, by William Golding, The Half Hunter, by John Sherwood, The Liberty Man, by Gillian Freeman, Nurse is a Neighbour, by Joanna Jones, A Season in Love, by Peter Draper, Under the Net, by Iris Murdoch.