Terms of endearment? Are they regional cultural or habit forming?

[Igel]

3. Old Baltimore had "unisex" "hon."

When I was in certain areas of town I was "hon" to both men and women, but only older ones. It wasn't age. It was just a way of keeping a sentence from ending without some sort of term of friendly address.

Women called women "hon." Men called men "hon." And, of course, men called women (and women called men) "hon." Wasn't offensive at the time.

Then it became offensive. If you called a woman "hon" you were sexist. If you called another member of your sex "hon" you were somehow weighing in on gay issues or were yourself gay. It died a quick and sudden death.

Rather like the use of the word "street arab." ("Arab" wasn't pronounced as the ethnicity, "AIR-rub", but as "AY-rab". But people focused on writing not pronunciation, so "street arab" was considered offensive; it didn't help that the street arabs were a dying breed, anyway.)