In Spanish the "thou" word ("tú") never died out, though I'm told in Argentina calling everyone "vos" is a regional thing But in the 17th century the Spanish aristocracy started going even further and being *ultra*-polite
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Replying to @arthur_affect @revivingfisking
Habitually addressing your social betters in the *third* person, by a title Not just "vosotros" or "vos" but "Vuestra Merced", "Your Mercy"
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Replying to @arthur_affect @revivingfisking
There were multiple titles, like "Your Grace", "Your Highness", etc but "Your Mercy" was the all-purpose one And "Your Mercy" became so commonly used that it got slurred and shortened from "Vuestra Merced" to "vuestraced" to "vuestred" to just "usted"
1 reply 3 retweets 37 likes -
Replying to @arthur_affect @revivingfisking
This is why the grammatical quirk that when fully spelled out "usted" is lowercase but abbreviated as "Ud." it's capitalized, it's technically a proper noun
1 reply 2 retweets 36 likes -
Replying to @arthur_affect @revivingfisking
And see, while in Spain "tú" (informal 2nd person singular), "usted" (formal 2nd person singular), "vosotros" (informal 2nd person plural) and "ustedes" (formal 2nd person plural) all coexist, in Latin America they were so ultra-polite "usted" completely replaced "vosotros"
1 reply 3 retweets 29 likes -
Replying to @arthur_affect @revivingfisking
The ONLY WAY to speak to someone politely in Mexico is to call them "Your Grace", the actual word "you" has become archaic and obsolete And while some would just call this a quirk of language, it is obviously related to 17th century Spain being a massive colonial slave empire
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Replying to @arthur_affect @revivingfisking
People in the colonies spoke much more formally and ultra-politely than in Spain because they had to It's creepy when you think about what "usted" literally means, "Your Mercy" You're begging "Hey random dude please don't call the cops on me" with every sentence
2 replies 2 retweets 47 likes -
Replying to @arthur_affect @revivingfisking
Obviously to most modern Spanish speakers this is just natural and you don't really "hear" it anymore any more than we think "Hey you!" is a "polite" thing to say to someone But the markers of the past are always still there in language
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Replying to @arthur_affect @revivingfisking
I’ve always gotten a kick out of the fact that you can thoroughly cuss someone out but you still use Ud. if they’re not an intimate, as “váyase a la mierda” God forbid you *insult* someone while telling them to go to hell
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Replying to @seventorches @revivingfisking
"May I suggest you eat shit, sir"
2 replies 2 retweets 11 likes
It's like all the people talking about the stock phrase "Voulez-vous coucher avec-moi?" from the song and how it's deliberately jarring French Using the formal register ("vous") with a very blunt word for sex ("coucher" = "bed") "Would you like to fuck me, sir?"
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