Terms of endearment are called hypocoristic (in French hypocoristique), from the Greek upokore, kore meaning child, and the verb korizo, to pamper. Note that the grammatical gender of the term of endearment often does not match that of the person addressed. Since such terms have different nuances in every language, a translation is not provided. There is an infinite number of hypocoristic terms: anybody can either invent a new word or attribute a new affectionate meaning to a word. For example, various parts of the body may be used (my heart, my eyes), names of flowers (lily, rose), desserts (sweetie pie), animals (kitten) and so on. A partial (and arbitrary) list is provided below which has been culled from lullabies, popular songs and movies (including comedies).
| amore (mio) | |
| amorevole | |
| amorino | |
| amoroso | |
| angelo | |
| anima mia | |
| bambino/a (mio/a) | |
| bellezza | |
| bello/a | |
| caro/a | |
| cicciolina | |
| ciumachella | |
| cocco/a | |
| creatura | |
| cuore (mio) | |
| delizia | |
| dolcezza | |
| fata | |
| gattino/a | |
| gioia | |
| micio/a | |
| mio bene | |
| mi piaci | |
| nini (ninni) | |
| passerotto/a | |
| passione (mia) | |
| piccolo/a | |
| pupa | |
| pupilla dei miei occhi | |
| stella (mia) | |
| tenerezza | |
| tenero/a | |
| tesoro | |
| tesoruccio, tesorino, tesorone | |
| vita mia |
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