MARYLAND – “Hon” is short for “honey” or a term of endearment. It’s often used in place of “sir” or “ma’am” or when the person’s name is unknown.
What Does Hon Mean in Baltimore? HONfest started many years ago in Baltimore neighborhoods when women sporting beehive hairdos and cat-eye glasses created a culture unique to Baltimore called HONfest. They treated everyone kindly, calling everyone ‘Hon”.
Linguist Barbara Johnstone notes in her book that “Hon” is an expression of self-conscious regional identity used to distinguish and redeem one city among competing East Coast cities (Johnstone, Andrus, and Danielson 2006).
Whiting’s Cafe Hon was a working-class refuge serving to foster its city’s cultural identity; it, unfortunately, closed in 2022. Plastic menus feature photos of bewigged Whiting and contestants from Hon Fest, an annual beauty pageant she hosts each June…