Honorific

An honorific is a title that conveys esteem, courtesy, or respect for position or rank when used in addressing or referring to a person.

It is also often conflated with systems of honorific speech in linguistics, which are grammatical or morphological ways of encoding the relative social status of speakers.

Further considerations regarding identifying people by gender currently are raised with varying prevalence and details; in some environments, honorifics such as Mx., Ind.

may be used for a boy who has not yet entered adult society; similar to this, "Miss" may be considered appropriate for a girl but inappropriate for a woman (but unless parallel to "Mstr."

All the above terms but "Miss" are written as abbreviations—most were originally abbreviations (e.g., from "Mister", "Mistress"), others may be considered as coined to directly parallel them for consistency.

Other honorifics may denote the honored person's occupation, for instance "Doctor", "Esquire", "Captain", "Coach", "Officer", "The Reverend" (for all Christian clergy) or "Father" (for a Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, or Anglican Christian priest), "Rabbi" for Jewish clergy, or Professor.

In addition, such countries' etiquette rules dictate that this title must be placed on all the official letters and social invitations, business cards, identification documents, etc.

In the U.S., when addressing a pilot, common etiquette does not require the title "Captain" to be printed on official letters or invitations before the addressee's full name.

In areas of East Africa where the Bantu language Swahili is spoken, mzee is frequently used for an elder to denote respect by younger speakers.

[2] Other honorifics include mukubwa (for ministers, employers, and authorities), dada/kaka (for peers, friends, colleagues), and mama/baba (for parents and grandparents).

[3] Additionally, some Arabic loanwords are used in coastal regions as honorifics, too, such as ami (paternal uncle) and haloo (maternal aunt), the familial roles for which are more often described elsewhere in the Swahili-speaking world as baba mkubwa/mdogo (older/younger father) or mama mkubwa/mdogo (older/younger mother).

[5] Amongst the Akan ethnic groups of West Africa's Ghana, the word nana is used as an aristocratic pre-nominal by chiefs and elders alike.

[7] Although Chinese honorifics have simplified to a large degree, many classical constructs are still occasionally employed to convey formality, humility, politeness or respect.

Professional titles like Ingegnere (engineer) are often substituted for the ordinary Signore / Signora (mister or Mrs.), while Dottore or Dottoressa (doctor) is used freely for any graduate of a university.

Masculine honorifics lose their e ending when juxtaposed to a surname: e.g., Dottor Rossi, Cardinal Martini, Ragionier Fantozzi.

In contrast Singapore, whose Malay royalty was abolished by the British colonial government in 1891, has adopted civic titles for its leaders.

Addressing a woman in a similar situation as above one may use "Miss", or "Madam" and its contraction "Ma'am", followed by First/ last/ or full name.

Older married women may prefer to be addressed as "Mrs." The use of Sir/Miss/Madam or Ma'am, followed by the first name, nickname, or surname is usually restricted to Filipino vernacular and social conversation, even in television and film.

On a professional level, many use educational or occupational titles such as Architect, Engineer, Doctor, Attorney (often abbreviated as Arch./Archt./Ar., Engr., Dr. [or sometimes Dra.

Even foreigners who work in the Philippines or naturalized Filipino citizens, including foreign spouses of Filipinos, who hold some of these titles and descriptions (especially as instructors in Philippine colleges and universities) are addressed in the same way as their Filipino counterparts, although it may sound awkward or unnatural to some language purists who argue that the basic titles or either Sir or Ma'am/Madam are to be employed for simplicity, as they are unnecessary when he or she is included in a list of wedding sponsors, or when their name appears in the list of officials of a country club or similar organization.

[12] It is also acceptable to treat those titles and descriptions (except Doctor) as adjectival nouns (i.e., first letter not capitalized, e.g. architect (name)) instead.

Spanish has a number of honorific forms that may be used with or as substitutes for names, such as señor or caballero ("Mr.", "Sir", "Gentleman"); señora ("Madam", "Mrs.", "Lady", "ma'am") and señorita ("Miss", "young lady"); licenciado for a person with bachelor's or a professional degree (e.g., attorneys and engineers); maestro for a teacher, master mechanic, or person with a master's degree; doctor ("doctor"); etc.

Also used is don (male) or doña (female) for people of rank or, in some Latin American countries (e.g., Puerto Rico), for any senior citizen.

Additionally, older people and those with whom one would speak respectfully (e.g., one's boss or teacher), are often addressed as usted, abbreviated ud., a formal/respectful way of saying "you" (e.g. Dra.

In some regions, addressing a relative stranger as tú can be considered disrespectful or provocative, except when it is directed to a person notably younger than the speaker, or in an especially informal context.

Even though the younger generation of Pingelapese speakers does not use honorific speech, elders in the language report being taught a form of 'language of respect'.

Thai has honorifics as well as what I like to call 'dishonorifics': it has a multitude of pronouns that are extremely nuanced—for example, there are so many ways to say 'I', and most of them already indicate the speaker's gender and often their age and societal standing relative to the person they are speaking to.

Honorifics in Vietnamese are more complex compared to Chinese, where the origins of many of these pronouns can be traced, and many have fallen out of usage or have been replaced due to the changing times.

An honorific, or a pronoun, in Vietnamese when referring to a person acts as a way to define two peoples' degree of relationship with one another.

When addressing or referring to someone, they often use the person's name, an informal pronoun, or some other style implying social equality, such as "brother", "sister", "friend", or "comrade".