TERMS OF ENDEARMENT IN YORKSHIRE.
TERMS OF ENDEARMENT IN YORKSHIRE. Jenny Gross has an article in the Wall Street Journal (June 12) about how people in Yorkshire will customarily use terms of endearment in talking to acquaintances and strangers. The language usage has drawn attention because one segment of the Tour de France is going to be in Yorkshire this year, and instructions have been sent out to warn Yorkshire people that the usage may give offense to international visitors. (The Tour de France context gives rise to an example Jenny Gross uses: “Excuse me love, can you move back?”) Some of the terms that may be used in addressing somebody are: “petal dust”, “flower”, “duck’, “pet’, “treasure”, “cherub”, “love”, and “darling”. The usage is thought to go back hundreds of years.