question mainly for americans
is 'sweetheart' a hierarchal nickname? explained below
american, yes
american, no
not american
what i mean is that other than in the context of being a genuine affectionate petname between friends or partners, 'sweetheart' really connotes a sense of an older person speaking to a younger person. like i'm british and work in food service and always get called sweetheart by polite customers (there may be an element of gendering in there as well given i dont pass/am not out at work but idk if thats a factor), and wouldn't dream of calling them that the other way round as a younger server.
wondering this BECAUSE i saw an insanely weird american basically hallmark movie called 'a very british christmas' very obviously written by americans, where the probably 5yo 'cute kid of the love interest who wants the protagonist to stay in yorkshire' character would repeatedly call the protag 'sweetheart' which IMMENSELY threw me off bc kids like. dont address adults as that at all in my experience. like the protagonist calling the kid sweetheart would have made sense but the way it was done made it seem like she was a 5yo possessed by a 60 year old woman. so basically, im trying to figure out what possessed them to do that and was wondering if the hierarchal 'sweetheart as an older person addressing a younger person' phenomenon doesn't exist in america as much as it does here??
