As you lived in Canada, you might know that shop and other “service personnel” are most unlikely, if ever to address customers as Dear, Dearie, Pet, or Love. As a 10 year old visiting New York, I was nonplussed to hear, in stores or restaurants, to hear the aunt I was with addressed as “Hon”, all the more because the stereotype of a New Yorker was not one of warmth or friendliness. On my next visit, some 7 years later, I understood that it meant little. In Canadian encounters one is far more likely to hear Madam, Ma’am or Miss (or Sir).
As for -ie/y endings used by adults, a relatively recent one here, in print, online (I do not associate with anyone who uses it in speech) and which to me just sounds childish and childlike, is “bestie”, for what used to be simply “best friend”.
As you lived in Canada, you might know that shop and other “service personnel” are most unlikely, if ever to address customers as Dear, Dearie, Pet, or Love. As a 10 year old visiting New York, I was nonplussed to hear, in stores or restaurants, to hear the aunt I was with addressed as “Hon”, all the more because the stereotype of a New Yorker was not one of warmth or friendliness. On my next visit, some 7 years later, I understood that it meant little. In Canadian encounters one is far more likely to hear Madam, Ma’am or Miss (or Sir).
As for -ie/y endings used by adults, a relatively recent one here, in print, online (I do not associate with anyone who uses it in speech) and which to me just sounds childish and childlike, is “bestie”, for what used to be simply “best friend”.