means A thick, sweet golden substance made by bees from the nectar of flowers, used as a natural sweetener — and, by affectionate extension, a term of endearment for someone dear.

from From Old English 'hunig,' tracing back to a Proto-Germanic root (compare German 'Honig,' Dutch 'honing'). The deeper Proto-Indo-European source possibly described the colour — a word meaning 'golden' or 'yellowish' — so honey may literally be named for its glow rather than its taste. Curiously, many other Indo-European languages used an entirely different root (seen in Latin 'mel,' source of 'mellifluous' and 'caramel'), making the Germanic 'honey' something of a linguistic outlier. The sweetheart sense — calling a loved one 'honey' — is a much later, tender borrowing of the word's sweetness.