Not your deer

From 2009:

Only British people and maybe the elderly can get away with calling people “dear”. I don’t mind it usually, but I absolutely hate it when it’s just thrown in in the wrong situation, by the wrong person. It’s as though the other person assumes that they can get away with anything just by adding that word at the end, by assuming a level of intimacy between us that, er, does not exist (Sorry). I swear it makes my arm hair stand.  “Dear” is right up there with phrases like “No offence” and “I don’t mean to be an ass, but…”.

If you are neither old nor British, please do not use it unless you are really with people dearest to you. /Advice of the day