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Kirstyn Cardwell
Dr. Reese
English 1101H
8 Dec. 2014
I Claim You
Current terms of endearment include sweetheart, love, darling, beautiful, and babe. Why
have we chosen those words to express our love for someone? Maybe we choose them because
they sound nice or because a poet hundreds of years ago realized that love rhymed with dove.
Not all of the terms named are as pure as the way they are used. The origin of darling is not as
nice as those examples and involves a minion. Consequently, the word darling suggests that the
lover is the submissive party in the relationship.

Figure 1: Hello Darling Print

In the fifteen hundreds, minion, darling and dear were interchangeable terms. Although
minion still means mostly the same thing, darling and dear have changed in an important way.
According to the Oxford American Thesaurus of Current English a minions is a Lackey,

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henchman, underling, and a Favorite, pet, darling, (474). Other dictionaries define minion as
a servant or follower, favorite person (1500-20) (Chambers, 664) or a beloved object,
darling, favorite (816-817). Although some of the terms, ie. favorite, pet, and darling, do not
seem as rude as others, the contexts for the words are used in change the meaning. Darling or
dear is currently a term of endearment. Calling our significant others either word is seen as sweet
but do we realize it was not a very loving term originally? Darling 1. A person who is very dear
to another; one dearly loved is how we define the word in modern times but 2. A minion, a
lovable creature, or a pet (254) was the original definition. Lovable creature and pet are not
incredibly offensive words, but when used in the same connotation as minion, they are. Females
were called darling or dear by their male lovers as a show of some affection but more often,
being called darling was the same as being told you are my property. Mistresses and
submissive gay lovers were also referred to by these names because their social standing was
considered much lower.
All three dictionary entrees have minion coming from the word, in old French, mignot.
That changed to mignon and then to minion. In Where Words Come From by Bill Bryson
explains the way words change over time. He claims there are five ways a word will change, but
only two of them would fit minion. Either it changed when it was adopted into a new language or
by suffixes changing. There is also a possibility that both happened. Darling had many different
changes throughout history but the two most popular ones were deorling and dearling. All
variations of the word had the same meaning. It is possible that darling went though all five types
of change Bryson talked about: Words are created by error, adopted, created, change by doing
nothing, by adding or subtracting something (811- 819).
In Mira Rosenthals New Poetry In Translation, she explains how carful one must be

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when translating poetry. The different meanings of a word in a different language can affect how
the poem comes across to the audience. Our Lady of the Flowers, Echoic is the name of a book
length novel in verse that Rosenthal analyses. She takes an excerpt from the novel to focus on:
I must insist on Mignons looks
Undoubtedly a thug he carries
Bits of light that trail like ivy on a stele
A pedestal half-hidden with flowers
Hes been pissing on since boyhood:
Legs spread, knees slightly bent
Ive dropped a pearl, he says ( Rosenthal)
When this poem was translated to English mignon was changed to darling. The poem is about
Mignon, a man who seems perfect until he is discovered to be gross and unhygienic. The poem
correlates well with the way darling is used in modern time. It appears to be a beautiful word
with a good meaning but the more we reads about it, we realize it is an unfit word to call our
partner.

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Figure 2: Minions song - i Swear - Despicable Me 2
Minion is a term that, until recently, has been considered negative. Bryson also talked
about words changing by doing nothing. This would be when the word stays the same but the
meaning changes. Surprisingly often the meaning becomes its opposite or something very like it
(816-817). Minion is a good example because no part of the word has changed, just the meaning.
The movie Despicable Me has started to change not only childrens but also many adults view on
what a minion is. [Play Video] In Despicable Me, minions are Grus henchmen, but soon after
the movie starts, they become part of the family. Because they are treated well, and because Gru
is not very good at being bad, children do not understand that they are the bad guys henchmen.
Minion is starting to become a term to describe a small yellow creature from Despicable Me and
not a bad guys underlings.

Figure 3: Pride and Prejudice JUST FINAL SCENE KISS

Although Despicable Me has morphed childrens understanding of the word minion, not
all movies are trying to change our view on words. In the 2007 movie adaption of the book Pride

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and Prejudice, a scene was added at the end of the movie so the audience could get a feel of what
Darcy and Elizabeths home life was like. [Watch video now] Darcy calls Elizabeth my dear
trying to be romantic, but Elisabeth is not okay with the term. She tells him that is what her
father calls her mother when he is cross. In the 1800s, darling and dear were still being used
while associated with the term minion. Mr. Bennet, being from an older generation, probably
uses the word when he is upset because he understands the negative connotations. Darcy,
because of the poets of the time, saw the word as a term of endearment and was trying to be
loving.

Figure 4: Of Course I'm in Love With You Darling...... =P

Although dears meaning has changed for the most part, darling and dear are both still
used in sarcastic and insensitive ways. A good example of this is the following:
Where one romantic partner or family member is upset with the other and wants to
communicate this. In such cases partners usually indicate this to each other by using more
formal and socially distant termsas opposed to using more socially close termsthat

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are reserved as terms of endearment for those that the speaker is or wishes to be close
to(Croom).
There is a popular quote that demonstrates this idea well. Frankly my dear, I dont give a damn
is from the end of the movie Gone With the Wind. The quote expresses the want to inflict pain
on a loved one so passionately it is impossible to misunderstand the situation. It is obvious that
my dear is not being used as a term of endearment, but as way to hurt Scarlett. Darling and dear
are perfect words to use in these situations because of their original meanings.
When we call our partners darling or dear we are putting a claim on them. We may not
realize we are doing it and we might mean it in the nicest way possible, but it is still something
we should be conscious of. The words are part of our everyday vocabulary and should not be
taken out but when we use them should be changed. Staking a claim on our partners is only
something we should do if we are willing to be claimed as well.

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Works Cited
1progaru. Minions song - i Swear - Despicable Me 2. YouTube. N.p. Dec 26, 2013. Web. 4
Dec. 2014.
This is the ending scene of Despicable me 2. It shows what the minions look and act like.
It also has Gru getting married and shows how happy everyone is.
Barnhart, Robert K., and Sol Steinmetz. "Minion." Chambers Dictionary of Etymology.
Edinburgh: Chambers, 1988. 664. Print.
It is an etymology and definition of the word minion. Gives multiple meanings of the
word.
Bryson, Bill. "Where Words Come From." The Mother Tongue: English and How it Hot That
Way. 1994. A World of Ideas: Essential Readings for College Writers. 9th ed. Ed. Lee
A. Jacobus. New York, NY: Bedford/St. Martins, 2013. Print. 808-821.
Bryson explains how English has evolved overtime. He explains the four ways words
have changed: by adding to the words, subtracting from the words, making up new ones or by
doing nothing. He gives examples that help explain how words have changed using the four
categories.
Croom, Adam M. "Slurs." Language Sciences 33.3 (2011): 343-58. Web. 19 Nov. 2014.
This essay talks about how derogatory words are used and why they hold their negative
meaning. It also talks about why certain groups adopt the originally negative words about them
into their own speech. It is split into 8 sections: What are slurs?, Slurs and semantic types, Are
slurs descriptive?, Are slurs expressive?, Semantics, pragmatics, and philosophical accounts of
slurs, The literal meaning of slurs: a new proposal, Criterial features/properties, family
resemblances, and category membership, and concluding remarks.

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Despicable Me. Dir. Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud. Steve Carell, Jason Segel, and Russell
Brand. Universal Pictures. 2010. Film
Despicable Me is about a villain, Gru, who has plans to steal the moon. His plans where
foiled when Vector stole his shrinking machine. Gru uses three girls he adopted and his minions
to steal his machine back. During the movie, Gru comes to love the girls. He gives up his
mission to save the girls and the world.
Gone with the Wind. Dir. Victor Fleming. Prod. David O. Selznick. By Sidney Coe Howard,
Max Steiner, and Ernest Haller. Perf. Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Leslie Howard, Olivia
De Havilland, Thomas Mitchell, and Hattie McDaniel. Loew's Incorporated, 1939.
Gone with the wind is the story of Scarlett OHaras life, mainly the relationships she has
during the prime of her life.
Lindberg, Christine A. "Minion." The Oxford American Thesaurus of Current English. New
York: Oxford UP, 1999. 474. Print.
The entry shows the two ways minion is used. It helps show the way the meaning has
changed over the years.
Melo, Mnica. Pride and Prejudice JUST FINAL SCENE KISS. YouTube. N.p. Apr 25,
2009. Web. 15 Nov. 2014.
This is the final scene in Pride and Prejudice. The scene was not in the book. It was added
so the audience could see Darcy and Elizabeth in their new lives. The scene is of the two
together at night on a balcony. Darcy is trying to find out what pet names he is allowed to call
Elizabeth.
Pride and Prejudice. Dir. Joe Wright. Perf. Keira Knightley, Mathew Macfayden, and Donald
Sutherland. Universal Pictures. 2005. Film.

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Pride and Prejudice focuses on the Bennet family. Although the movie shows what
happens to her whole family, the important members of the family are Elizabeth and Jane. When
Netherfield Park is rented to Mr. Bingley, Darcy also comes to town and his relationship with
Elizabeth begins. The movie tells how they fell in love and what contributed to them getting
engaged. The movie is based of the book by the same title written by Jane Austin.
Reynolds, Joanna. Hello Darling Print. Digital image. Sugar Paper. N.p., Web. 7 Dec. 2014.
ROSENTHAL, MIRA. "New Poetry In Translation." American Poetry Review 43.4 (2014): 9-11.
Literary Reference Center. Web. 3 Dec. 2014.
She talks about how when a poem is translated they can loose their meaning or the flow
of the poem. She uses poems from multiple books to do her analyses.
Sharif, Sara S. Of Course I'm in Love With You Darling...... =P. Digital image. Xantrica. N.p., 11
May 2011. Web. 17 Nov. 2014.
Simpson, J. A., and E. S. C. Weiner. "Darling." The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. 1989.
Print. 254.
This entry has the etymology and multiple definitions of the word Darling. It gives
examples of the word in literature and connects it to the word minion.
---. "Minion." The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. 1989. Print. 816-817.
Gives the definition of Minion. Connects the word to the word darling. Also gives the
etymology of the word and examples of minion in a sentence.