Terms of Endearment

I'm not sure about this week's book challenge. It's listed as "Favorite words and phrases, or lines and literary allusions that would win your heart." It seems to have been interpreted by the others who are participating to mean "literary pick-up lines". That is to say, literary quotations one could use to win their hearts. Or something. I'd rather have taken it to mean some of my favourite lines and such, but that does not appear to have been the consensus view. (I'm with you fellers.)

I'm not sure there are such things for me. Being male, in our culture, I would be expected to do the picking up. Or perhaps I should say "wooing". (Bit nicer connotations, that.) I could reinterpret it to mean what sorts of literary allusions and quotations I would use to attempt to win a woman's heart. On the other hand, it's been a while since I've had to win a woman's heart; having been married for nearly a dozen years I've been focused on keeping rather than gaining, if you will. Still, some thoughts on the whole business after the jump.

There is a significant difference in the words one likes and the words one thinks will win another. We are all of us different, after all. Moreover, the words that melted the heart of the woman who is now my wife were not the same as those that thrilled a couple of the other young women I dated in my callow youth.

Since the topic is literary words, I have always liked the word "acushla" ever since I ran across it in one of the earlier Aubrey-Maturin novels. It's not given any special emphasis; it's just used by Stephen Maturin in passing.  From the OED:

Irish English.

  As a form of address: (my) dear; darling.

I've always been fond of Biblical allusions as well. Reference to the last chapter of Proverbs is often welcomed by a woman who is religious and domestically-inclined. Since marriage I've been fond of the comfort that Elkanah gives to Hannah when she weeps in sadness at not having any children. "Do I not mean more to you than ten sons?" I'm not sure why I like it so much, but the very oddness of it in a modern society where male heirs are not as important as previously I'm sure has something to do with it. I don't have to use it because my wife is sad we don't have any children (we've been blessed with three so far), but I find that it can serve to cheer her from other sadnesses partially because it's so strange.

Of course, there are several terms from Wodehouse which also work well when humorous endearments are desirable. Who wouldn't want to be called "a specific dream-rabbit" or a "woolly baa-lamb"? As in, "Oh, Bertie! You are a woolly baa-lamb!" After all these years it's nice to know I am still my wife's specific dream-rabbit. Though, thankfully, she does not think the stars are God's daisy-chain.

Beyond that, I'm not sure that I really use too many words from others in my wooing. After all, if you can't come up with something pretty good yourself, you're not trying hard enough, in my opinion.