No One's Your Sweetie

In ‘Sweetie’ and ‘Dear,’ a Hurt for the Elderly | BlueRidgeNow.com | Times-News Online | Hendersonville, NC: "Professionals call it elderspeak, the sweetly belittling form of address that has always rankled older people: the doctor who talks to their child rather than to them about their health; the store clerk who assumes that an older person does not know how to work a computer, or needs to be addressed slowly or in a loud voice. Then there are those who address any elderly person as “dear...”"