| honorific |
| Definition: A form of direct address that is used to confer respect. |
| Example: Your Excellency and Mr. |
| Etymology: The word derives from the Latin honorem, honor. |
| Oxford English Dictionary: The first citation for the term in this sense is from 1879: "They use none of the honorifics so profusely common in Singhalese; the pronoun to, thou, being alone used." (Bailey in H. Spencer Princ. Sociol. §398 II. 153) |