Term of Endearment Through the Google Books Ngram Viewer

Throughout history, a wide variety of romantic nicknames have passed through the lips of lovers. Many of these are inspired by and reflected in literature. Romeo called Juliet "my sweet," Rhett called Scarlett "my dear" and Torvald Helmer called Nora "my little lark".

You can now find out when your favorite "terms of endearment*" came into vogue and fell out of fashion through the Google Books Ngram Viewer.

A term of endearment is a word or phrase used to address and/or describe a person, animal or inanimate object for which the speaker feels love or affection. Terms of endearment are used for a variety of reasons, such as parents addressing their children and lovers addressing each other.

Comb through more than 500 billion words from more than 5.2 million books spanning from 1500 to 2006 with a few taps and a click. Want to see the words in heart-fluttering context? Click the corresponding links in the table beneath the line graph to browse inside the books where your search terms were found.

"The Viewer reveals that "sweetie pie" has grown steadily since the mid-30's while "stud muffin" was last to the love party when it appeared in the late 1980s."

More Info: Google Books Ngram Viewer

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