# "Darling" in old movies -- where'd it come from?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/darling-in-old-movies-whered-it-come-from/434190>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [January 19, 2008, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/darling-in-old-movies-whered-it-come-from/434190 "2008-01-19T21:14:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\
**Post date:** [January 20, 2008, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/darling-in-old-movies-whered-it-come-from/434190/21 "2008-01-20T17:57:59Z")

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**AuntiePam** , had you grown up in Philadelphia in the sixties, you’d have been darlinged, dolled, deared and sweethearted half to death. By women your mom’s age, but still.

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**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\
**Post date:** [January 20, 2008, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/darling-in-old-movies-whered-it-come-from/434190/22 "2008-01-20T18:43:04Z")

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Thanks for the replies!

To me, darling is a stronger term of endearment than honey, baby, sweetheart, etc., which sound more casual. Darling should be reserved for serious relationships. I don’t know where I got that notion. Apparently it’s a cockamamie notion!

People in movies use it too quickly. One date (no sex) and they’re each other’s darlings?

I don’t watch a lot of contemporary movies, but my impression is that darling isn’t used much anymore. Is it dated? Or am I just not watching the right movies?

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**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\
**Post date:** [January 20, 2008, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/darling-in-old-movies-whered-it-come-from/434190/23 "2008-01-20T18:53:28Z")

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My husband of 26 years calls me “darlin’” (which I love as long as it comes from him) and I call him “sweetheart” and when he calls on the phone I say “Hi babe.” I don’t know either of those endearments bother him. He’s never said so.

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**Author:** ![singular1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@singular1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/singular1)\
**Post date:** [January 20, 2008, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/darling-in-old-movies-whered-it-come-from/434190/24 "2008-01-20T19:07:51Z")

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I use it, but I love old-timey terms, and I always drop the g. Somehow it seems so formal if you don’t.  
I remember reading an interview with Annette O’Toole, speaking of the Oscar-nominated song she and husband Michael McKean wrote for _A Mighty Wind_, and she said she though it was so sad that he had never been called darling before he met her that she had to have it in the song.

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**Author:** ![Cub\_Mistress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Cub\_Mistress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cub_Mistress)\
**Post date:** [January 20, 2008, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/darling-in-old-movies-whered-it-come-from/434190/25 "2008-01-20T19:33:25Z")

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As I read this thread I keep hearing David Alan Coe’s “you don’t have to call me darlin’, darlin’, but you never even call me by my name” playing in my head.

I use darling occasionally, along with some others that can sound a little stupid if written down, so I won’t.

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