Sweetie

How to spell sweetie

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce sweetie

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does sweetie mean?

1. nounAn affectionate name for a person one loves or feels fond of.
2. nounA piece of confectionery; a small sweet.

Sweetie in a sentence

• He left a note calling her his sweetie before catching the early train.

• The children spent their pocket money on a single sweetie from the corner shop.

• The toddler is such a sweetie that the whole nursery adores her.

• She unwrapped a chewy sweetie to settle her stomach on the long coach journey.

Where does sweetie come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word is built from the adjective 'sweet', which descends from the Old English 'swete', meaning pleasant to the taste or smell, a word shared across the Germanic family and ultimately related to forms in Latin ('suavis', agreeable) and Greek ('hedys', sweet). To this English speakers added the suffix '-ie' (also written '-y'), a diminutive and affectionate ending that turns a plain word into something fond and familiar, much as 'dog' becomes 'doggie'. Applied to people, 'sweetie' has worked as a tender form of address since the seventeenth century, treating the loved one as something delightful. In British usage the same fond diminutive came to label a piece of confectionery, since a 'sweetie' is literally a little sweet thing. The spelling keeps the full 'sweet' visible before the '-ie', which is the easiest way to remember it.

How the word is built

• sweet (pleasant to taste; dear)
• -ie (affectionate/diminutive suffix)