Other forms: sweeties
A sweetie is an affectionate name for somebody dear to you. Come here, sweetie, she's a sweetie, thanks, sweetie.
It is warm between intimates and can grate from a stranger, especially said to a woman by a man in a shop — which is why the same word reads as kindness or as condescension depending entirely on who says it. In British use a sweetie is also a sweet. Note sweetheart.
1nounsweetieAn affectionate name for somebody dear to you.
“Come here, sweetie, and let me fix your hair before school.”
2nounuseA sweet, in British use.
“Grandma always kept a bag of sweeties in her handbag for the children.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
sweetie is a term of endearment.
Also accepted in games: darling
Proto-Indo-European
*sweh₂d-
Middle English
swete
English
sweet
English, today
sweetie
Built from
From sweet + -ie. sweet comes from Middle English swete. From Middle English soot, sweete, swete, swoote, from Old English swēte, swoete, swōt, swœ̄te (“sweet”), from Proto-West Germanic swōtī, from Proto-Germanic swōtuz (“sweet”), from Proto-Indo-European swéh₂dus (“sweet”), from sweh₂d- (“sweet”) + -us. 2
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA