To ask what you think when women use the word ‘darling’?

[Castleofdreams]

Like calling other people, both women and men, darling as a term of endearment or just in normal conversation like "darling can you pass me the.."

Cringing. Jist dinna.

Well what do you think, sweetheart?

Really cringy. I work with someone who is like this. It’s like a total diva act.

Suits some people’s way of speaking. I don’t mind it.

Fine. Unless they are using the affected dahhhling, it is just another term of endearment and I can't get excited about that.

It's not something I would dwell on tbh

Some people call everyone "love" or "duck . I tend to assume these people aren't great at remembering names so it's a coping mechanism

Qait, don't half the acronyms on here start with the 'd' (darling/dear) prefix?!

I do this, I just picked it up from my mum. It's usually reserved for family / partners / children but sometimes it slips out elsewhere. It's just a manner of speaking and one I hope is fairly inoffensive!

I only use it on my kids and dogs. Otherwise no. I don’t want to be anyone else’s darling either.

My mother always advised calling men darling, as that way you don't have to remember their names...

I usually use their names.

No issues with it. I find the women who say it tend to be a bit 'posh' as round here, you would more generally be called 'bab' or 'Darl/Doll'.
Nowhere near as bad as when a man says it. The pizza guy said 'There you go Darlin' the other day. He was about 18.

I use darling loads, mostly for my kids. I'm not posh and it's not an affectation to try to seem so.

Sadly, I do not sound like Matt Berry when I do so.

Totally depends on context, tone, and yes (I'll get flamed for this) age of the person saying it

My Irish 80 year old neighbour calling me darling? Fine

The 20 year old shop assistant passive aggressively calling me it to imply I'm stupid? Not fine

I think it’s part of the way some people speak, that’s all. I find it a bit affected but that usually
changes if I then get to know the person.

It’s a term of endearment. I say it to DH and my baby and my dogs, my sister and my friends. My gran was a big ‘darling’ person. I love it, it’s so affectionate.

Ah actually agree with @TyFly , it’s very annoying when someone much younger uses it! Whether or not that’s an irrational reaction….

Nobody ever calls me darling. It sounds affectionate though.

It doesn't matter to me, nor do I bother about being called other terms of endearment by either men or women.
Darling isn't a word I tend to use, unlike love, sweetie and chicken which I use on everyone.

I call my kids darling, and sometimes my husband. I grew up with my parents using it for me and my sister. It’s ingrained!

It's just a common (as in frequent, not downmarket) way of speaking in some areas, it's just normal conversation, part of the huge regional variations we have in accents, pronounciation and language we have across the UK.

My dad used to call everyone, male and female, 'love' as was the way of men of his age where we lived. No-one thought anything of it, although a male waiter did comment on it when we were on holiday in another part of the UK.

I have a friend who calls me darling. She's a bit posh. I love her dearly and she's a wonderful friend.

Very dependent on who says it and how they say it. As PP said, I don't mind if someone older calls me darling*, but would find it patronising from someone younger (there's more to it than that, but that's probably the main nuance).

For some reason I find it really rating how makeup artist Charlotte Tilbury (over)uses 'darling' in her marketing. Lovely makeup though!

*grating

I think it's fine if that's how they talk.

I was asking as I use darling quite a lot as well as angel

so would you say it’s more of a middle class term of endearment?