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Dutch

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Etymology

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Literally, your gentlehood, or more loosely translated as your nobility.

Pronoun

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uwe edelheid

  1. (obsolete) formal 2nd person pronoun

Usage notes

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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.