Pie-tymology: A Term of Endearment

Have you ever wondered why it is that we add “pie” to the end of words to describe our loved-ones (ex: “sweetie-pie”)? I had never thought about it much,  as it seems to come naturally.

Wikipedia says that most terms of endearment “are concrete nouns that have favorable associations, either with a sweet taste or the nature of the relationship”, which explains why we would use “pie” to describe a loved one here in modern-day America. But has that always been the case?

According to etymonline the term “sugar” wasn’t coined as a term of endearment until 1930. So if we weren’t using “sugar”, we inevitably weren’t using “sugar pie”, right?

Given that sweet pies weren’t the dominant form of pie in America until the 20th century, I’d be surprised to find that it was a common term of endearment prior to then. According to Time, “A cookbook from 1796 listed only three types of sweet pies; a cookbook written in the late 1800s featured 8 sweet pie varieties; and by the 1947 the Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking listed 65 different varieties of sweet pies”.

So if the prominent pies at the time were meat pies, tacking pie onto a word would probably not have been a flattering nickname.

I personally think we add “pie” to terms of endearment because 1.) obviously, pie is sweet and 2.) making a pie itself is a labor of love,  and the things that we’re truly endeared to require patience and care, just like pie. That’s just my theory, though.

Image courtesy of Grin and Bake It