Articles and Stories

October 4, 2016

Are you looking for something new to call your loved one? Here are some ideas from around the world:

Animals are used in many languages as pet names, since little animals are cute. German, for example, uses Häschen (little bunny), Bärchen (little bear), Mäuschen (little mouse), Rehlein (little deer), and Spätzchen (little sparrow). French goes even smaller by calling a loved one ma puce or “my flea.” Similarly, in Hungarian, you can call them Bogárkám or “my little bug.” Italian tries to go even smaller with microbino mio, “my little microbe.” In Persian you can be so small that you can say moosh bokhoradet or “may a mouse eat you.”

Food is also used in many languages. In English we say sweet pea, peaches, pumpkin, muffin, cupcake, sugar and, of course, sweetie-pie, cutie-pie, honey-pie. In Italian, you may be a fragolina “little strawberry” and in Polish you can be a kruszynko or “breadcrumb.” French doesn’t sound quite as romantic with mon petit chou or “my little cabbage.”

In Thai, men over 40 may call their wives แม่ยอดชู้ (mae-yod-choo), which literally means “mother with the most paramours”, or แม่เนื้ออุ่น (mae-nua-oun), “mother with warm meat”. I’d rather be a little cabbage…