caressing name

plural caressing names

1. archaicA name or nickname used to express affection, especially to a child, parent, or other loved one.

   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.

   4 more examples

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

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

   “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

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

   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’ […]

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

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

   Synonyms: pet name, term of endearment