Your Majesty
English
editPronunciation
editProper noun
editYour Majesty (plural Your Majesties)
- (formal) A term of address used in direct address to a monarch of higher rank than a prince, such as a king, queen, emperor, or empress.
- 1991 [1063 CE], Patricia Buckley Ebrey, quoting Ssu-ma Kuang, “Comabting Heterodoxy and Vulgarity in Weddings and Funerals”, in Confucianism and Family Rituals in Imperial China: A Social History of Writing about Rites[1], Princeton University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 72:
- I have heard that Your Majesty wishes to have the great burial on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month and that the court has sent its commissioner to supervise the tomb work. I do not know if a site has yet been chosen. Some say that there are plans to search widely outside of Yung-an county [where the previous Sung imperial tombs were located] for an auspicious site. In my ignorance, I consider this to be a mistake.
- (informal, sarcastic) A sarcastic term of address to anyone who is (or is acting) pompous or bossy.
Usage notes
edit- If the reigning monarch is a prince or princess, the form is Your Highness.
- The exact forms vary somewhat from country to country.
Translations
editterm of address
|
Pronoun
editYour Majesty (plural Your Majesties)
- (formal) you (in direct address to such a monarch)
- c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene vi]:
- All our service,
In every point twice done and then double done,
Were poor and single business to contend
Against whose honors deep and broad wherewith
Your Majesty loads our house.
- c. 1845, Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte-Cristo, page 59:
- “Sire,” said Villefort, “the rapidity of the event must prove to your majesty that God alone can prevent it, by raising a tempest; what your majesty is pleased to attribute to me as profound perspicacity is simply owing to chance; and I have profited by that chance, like a good and devoted servant—that's all. Do not attribute to me more than I deserve, sire, that your majesty may never have occasion to recall the first opinion you have been pleased to form of me.”
Alternative forms
edit- His Majesty, Her Majesty (third person)
See also
editThird person - female (Her) | Third person - male (His) | Second person (Your) | Third person - plural (Their) |
Her Britannic Majesty | His Britannic Majesty | Your Britannic Majesty | Their Britannic Majesties |
Her Excellency | His Excellency | Your Excellency | Their Excellencies |
Her Highness | His Highness | Your Highness | Their Highnesses |
Her Imperial Highness | His Imperial Highness | Your Imperial Highness | Their Imperial Highnesses |
Her Imperial Majesty | His Imperial Majesty | Your Imperial Majesty | Their Imperial Majesties |
Her Maj | His Maj | Your Maj | |
Her Majesty | His Majesty | Your Majesty | Their Majesties |
Her Royal Highness | His Royal Highness | Your Royal Highness | Their Royal Highnesses |
Her Royal Majesty | His Royal Majesty | Your Royal Majesty | Their Royal Majesties |