hun
n. countablen. a short, friendly name for 'honey' that you use for someone you like or are close to. It is very casual and can sometimes sound a bit too familiar if you don't know the person well.
n. a term of endearment, functioning as a clipped form of 'honey'. Often used as a vocative to address a partner, friend, or occasionally a stranger in service contexts.
How are you doing today, hun?
The waitress smiled and asked, 'What can I get for you, hun?' as she handed me the menu.
While some find being called 'hun' by a stranger to be patronising, in many regional dialects it is simply a standard marker of social warmth and informal hospitality.
From Old English Hūnas, Hūne (both plural), from Late Latin Hunni, from Koine Greek Οὗννοι (Hoûnnoi), borrowed through Middle Iranian. Cognate with Old Norse húnir, Old High German Hunni. See also etymology of Xiongnu. Compare Sogdian [script needed] (xwn), Sanskrit हूण (hūṇa), and 匈奴 (OC hoŋ-nâ) (c. 318 BCE) > hɨoŋ-nɑ (Eastern Han), which Schuessler (2014:264) proposes to be transcription of foreign *Hŏna ~ Hŭna. More at Huns. As a derogatory term for Germans popularized by Rudyard Kipling, reacting to Germany's proposal that the Royal Navy be used to collect debts from Venezuela.
Borrowed from Khmer ហ៊ុន (hun).
Used primarily as a vocative (a word used to address someone directly).