caressing name

caressing name (plural caressing names)

1. (archaic) A name or nickname used to express affection, especially to a child, parent, or other loved one.

   Synonyms: pet name, term of endearment

   • 1834 February, Christian Isobel Johnstone, “The Sabbath Night’s Supper”, in Tait’s Edinburgh Magazine‎, page 9:

     Robin’s Young Chevalier diligently filled the glass of Charles’s Greysteel,—such were their old caressing names for each other […]

   • 1853, Elizabeth Gaskell, chapter 3, in Ruth‎, volume 3, London: Chapman and Hall, page 78:

     “Mother,” said he, after a pause, coming nearer […] “mammy darling,” said he, using the caressing name, which he had been trying to drop as not sufficiently manly

   • 1866, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Birds of Prey, Book 3, Chapter 4, in Belgravia, February, 1867, p. 395,

     Miss Halliday consented to call her mother’s husband “Papa,” though the caressing name seemed in a manner to stick in her throat.

   • 1923, Ernest Jones, “The Theory of Symbolism” in Papers on Psycho-Analysis, New York: William Wood, p. 142,

     […] the four ideas that keep recurring in connection with the name ‘punchinello’ are (1) a caressing name for male offspring, equivalent to ‘little man’ […]

   • 1949, Dorothy Bussy, chapter 5, in Olivia‎, London: Hogarth Press, published 1950, page 40:

     She would call me by caressing names, she would talk to me about my dear Mamma and my little brothers and sisters […]