Sugar Daddy

A sugar daddy is the provider in a sugar dating arrangement, typically an older, wealthier man who gives a younger partner (a sugar baby) money, gifts, or other material support in exchange for companionship, romance, or intimacy. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the term to 1920s America, where sugar meant money. While sugar arrangements exist across all orientations, the sugar daddy dynamic is especially visible in gay male culture and on apps and sites built around it. Like all sugar relationships, it blends genuine connection with an openly acknowledged exchange, and it reflects broader patterns of age, wealth, and power in how people date.