Dutch

Pronoun

uwe edelheid

1. (obsolete) Formal 2nd person pronoun. Literally means "your gentlehood" or "your nobility".

Usage notes

This form entered the language in the seventeenth century as an extra-polite form, to distinguish itself from the regular second-person pronoun gij or jij (which itself originated as a polite use of the second-person plural form in Middle Dutch, as opposed to the now-extinct second-person singular pronoun du). It was similar in usage and meaning to the Spanish usted. However, it eventually became shortened to U E., and even pronounced as such (/yˈweː/). This shortened form was then shortened further to the modern form u.