Meaning

noun a beloved person; used as terms of endearment

noun a sweet innocent mild-mannered person (especially a child)

adjective dearly loved

originFrom Middle English dere, from Old English dīere (“of great value or excellence, expensive, beloved”), from Proto-West Germanic *diurī, from Proto-Germanic *diurijaz (“dear, precious, expensive”). Cognate with Scots dere, deir (“of great value or worth, highly valued, precious, beloved”), Saterland Frisian djuur (“precious, dear, costly, expensive”), Dutch duur (“expensive”), German teuer…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0