Honorific (pronounced on-uh-rif-ik)
(1) Conveying
honor, as a title or a grammatical form used in speaking to or about a
superior, elder etc.
(2) In certain
languages (including Chinese and Japanese) a class of forms used to show
respect, especially in direct address.
(3) A
title or term of respect.
(4) Of
a pronoun, verb inflection etc, indicating the speaker's respect for the
addressee or his acknowledgment of inferior status
1640–1650:
The construct was honor + -ific, from the Latin honōrificus (honor-making). Honor
as a noun dates from circa 1150–1200, from the Middle English honour, honor & honur (glory,
renown, fame earned), from the Anglo-French honour
& Old French onor, honor & honur (honor, dignity, distinction, position; victory, triumph)
(which persists in Modern French as honneur),
from the Latin honōr- (stem of honor & the earlier honōs), from honorem (nominative honos). The verb was from the Middle English honouren & honuren, from the Anglo-French honourer
& honurer, from the Latin honōrāre, derivative of honor. It displaced the Middle English menske (honor, dignity among men), from the
Old Norse menskr (honor). In Middle English, it also could mean
"splendor, beauty; excellence" and until the seventeenth century, honour
and honor appears to have been equally popular forms, the former still used in
places most influenced by British use, the latter long the preferred form in
North America. Meaning "feminine
purity, a woman's chastity" dates from the late fourteenth century. The idea of the “honor roll” is attested in
an academic context from 1872 and from here it spread to sporting and other
organizations. The initial h is merely
etymological, the sound having disappeared even prior to it entering Middle
English.
The
verb was from the Middle English honouren
& honuren (to do honor to, show
respect to) from the Old French onorer,
honorer (respect, esteem, revere;
welcome; present (someone with something)), from the Latin honorare (to honor) from honor (honor, dignity, office,
reputation). It was a Latinate
correction that began to be made in early Old French and from circa 1300 was
used to mean “confer honors on; action of honoring or paying respect to; act or
gesture displaying reverence or esteem; state or condition inspiring respect;
nobleness of character or manners; high station or rank; a mark of respect or
esteem; a source of glory, a cause of good reputation" and shortly after "to
respect, follow teachings & instructions etc”. In commercial transaction, the meaning "accept
a bill due etc, is attested from 1706, via the notion of "perform a duty
of respect toward". The meaning
"one's personal title to high respect or esteem" is from the 1540s.
The
suffix -ific (creating or causing something) was from the Latin -ficus, from the Proto-Italic -fakos and related to faciō, from the Proto-Italic fakjō, from the primitive Indo-European dheh- (to put, place, set), perhaps via
a later intermediate root dh-k-yé/ó- and cognate with the Ancient Greek
τίθημι (títhēmi), the Sanskrit दधाति
(dádhāti), the Old English dōn (which begat the English do) and the
Lithuanian dėti (to put). Facere
(to make) was the present active infinitive of faciō. Honorific
is an adjective & noun; honorifically is an adverb. The rare adjective honorifical is used when
describing the doing or conferring of an honor.
A
honorific is a title that conveys esteem or respect when used in addressing or
referring to a person. In the modern
age, until the late twentieth century, the most common honorific forms were Mr,
Mrs & Miss which became so procedural they could hardly any longer be
though honorific except in the most narrow technical sense. Feminist thought came to preferred Ms which
caught on and the LGBTQQIAAOP movement introduced Mx which didn’t although it
did intriguingly turn the honorific from a matter of etiquette into something political. Although less common a practice now, English
also had a tradition of the anti-honorific (despective or humilific) first
person forms such as an expressions like “your most humble servant”, the effect
of which is to enhance the relative honor accorded to the person addressed.
There
are some who define the term quite widely, even to the point where it’s
essentially synonymous with “title” although, at the margins, the distinction can
be difficult to determine. In the US,
senators and ambassadors are so styled while holding the office and that’s
because it’s a title proper yet, upon retirement, they continue to be addressed
so and at that point, it becomes a honorific.
In the English-speaking world this extends also to military ranks. A retired general is properly styled General
(rtd) but is addressed as “general” which is a honorific whereas those of
five-star rank (field marshal and equivalent) are deemed technically never to
retire and thus retain the title proper. Pedants
insist, in the narrow technical sense, the title doctor is honorific if used by
those who actually don’t hold doctorates (most dentists, vets and physicians
for example) yet those holding honorary doctorates use the titles proper. In the Commonwealth, the title “honourable”
is given to members of the executive and legislative bodies during their term
of service. It can also be retained by
royal licence (ie the approval of the Governor-in-Council) after a certain
number of years’ service although there appear to be no formal rules requiring
the subject actually to be in any way honorable, the effluxion of time apparently
deemed sufficient. In some fields,
titles are wholly informal and may be though honorific even if technically
outside the usual understanding. In
music, a distinguished conductor or virtuoso instrumentalist may be known as maestro
(from the Italian maestro, from the Latin magister (master)) and a great (or
possibly troublesome) soprano may be a diva (from the Italian diva, from Latin
dīva (goddess), feminine of dīvus (divine, divine one; notably a deified mortal)).
In the
intricate world of the British peerage, and the related order of precedence, honorifics
abound; the younger son of a duke is styled Lord though he’s not actually a
lord; it’s just a courtesy title.
Winston Churchill, fond of decorations but with little interest in
titles, upon accepting the Garter, suggested he might continue to be called Mr
Churchill as a "discourtesy title". In
society, the order of precedence is a thing of some importance and one that
even experts need sometimes to check to ensure the youngest daughter of a duke
is in the right place in relation to the oldest son of a viscount. Get it wrong and there could be a comment in
Tatler.
Probably every country
on the planet has an array of honorifics though some apply them more
formally. In Japan, san is the most
commonplace honorific and is a title of respect typically used between equals
of any age, the closest analogues in English being Mr, Miss etc. San is sometimes used with company names; the
offices or shop of Nippon Denso might be referred to as Nippon Denso san by those
in another corporation. On the small
maps in phone books and on business cards in Japan, names of companies are
written using san and it can be attached to the names of animals or even
inanimate objects; a pet rabbit might be called usagi-san, and fish used for
cooking can be referred to as sakana-san though being akin in English to Mr Fish,
some might avoid the term in mixed company. Married people often refer to their spouse attaching
san and during the Second World War, even enemy aircraft attracted the
honorific; Japanese civilians the target of the United States Army Air Force’s
(USAAF) Boeing B29 bombers called them the B-san.
Due to san being gender neutral and commonly used, it can be used to refer to people who are not close or to whom one does not know but it may not be appropriate when using it on someone who is close or when it is clear other honorifics should be used. Rules for this are doubtlessly best understood by the Japanese. San is a simple form but a myriad of other Japanese honorifics such as Sama, Kun, Chan, Tan, Bō, Senpai, Sensei, hakase, Sensi, and Shi are applied under a more complex matrix of rules.
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