This morning, in between the alarm going off and being fully awake, it occurred to me that I have never heard the word ‘daughter’ used in the same affectionate, term of endearment sense when directly addressing a young female as the word ‘son’ is used when directly addressing a young male. The affectionate, term of endearment (AToE) words I’ve heard applied by both by men and women to young females are: ‘sweetie’, ‘sweetheart’, ‘princess’, and the like, but never ‘daughter’.

It further occurred to me that I have heard men use the word ‘son’ in its AToE sense more than I’ve heard women use it in its AToE sense. More often than not, when I’ve heard women use the word ‘son’ to directly address a young male, it is in connection with an attempt to correct the young male’s behavior. Otherwise, I’ve observed that women directly address the young male using his name, or a variant thereof, the majority of the time. When I have heard women use AToE words when addressing a young male, they usually use the words ‘sweetie’ and ‘sweetheart’. Less frequently, I have heard them use the AToE word ‘son’.

I’ve also heard men use the AToE word ‘son’ when addressing young males that are of no relation to them, whereas I’ve not heard men or women use the word ‘daughter’ when addressing a young, unrelated female.

Finally, it also occurred to me that the word ‘son’ can be used in a demeaning, pejorative sense when addressing a man, but that I’ve never heard the word ‘daughter’ used with same disparaging intent when addressing a woman.

Has anyone else observed the divergent uses of these essentially equal terms, i.e. they both primarily refer to offspring?