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From: mcv@inter.NL.net (Miguel Carrasquer)
Subject: Re: origin of Usted
Message-ID: <CzB6KI.BuI@inter.NL.net>
Organization: NLnet
References: <caf6-141194215142@132.236.150.15>
Date: Tue, 15 Nov 1994 12:26:41 GMT
Lines: 18

In article <caf6-141194215142@132.236.150.15>,
Catherine Fountain <caf6@cornell.edu> wrote:
>If anyone out there is sure of the etymology of the Spanish second-person
>formal pronoun, usted, I would like to resolve a debate that a friend and I
>am having.
>I had always understood that it was derived from the title "Vuestra
>Merced", but  according to my friend it actually comes from an Arabic term
>borrowed from the Moors.  Any insights?

AFAIK, the word indeed comes from "vuestra merced".  There are variants
"voace'" and "vusted" (neither of them in common use anymore), and
there is the similar formation "usi'a" (< "vuestra sen~ori'a"), still
used I believe for members of the Cortes, the Spanish Parliament.

-- 
Miguel Carrasquer         ____________________  ~~~
Amsterdam                [                  ||]~  
mcv@inter.NL.net         ce .sig n'est pas une .cig 
