honorific
[on-uh-rif-ik]
1. Also, honorifical. doing or conferring honor.
2. conveying honor, as a title or a grammatical form used in speaking to or about a superior, elder, etc.
3. (in certain languages, as Chinese and Japanese) a class of forms used to show respect, especially in direct address.
4. a title or term of respect.
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The well dressed boy knocked lightly on the heavy wooden
door before entering. George wished he
wouldn’t do that. The whole point of
knocking was to ask for entry, and yet the boy used it more like an announcement
of his presence than anything else. It
was probably partially George’s fault though.
He was the one who insisted on keeping the door open in the first place.
“M’lord,
I have news.” The boy said. George
cringed.
“What
did you just say?” He asked.
“I-I
have news, sir.” The boy repeated
nervously.
“No,
no. Before that. What did you call me?”
“M’lord?”
“Yes,
that. Don’t call me that. Ever.”
“But…but
m—“
George
turned and shot the boy a piercing glair.
The boy stopped talking immediately.
“You
must know by now I hate being called a lord.
It irks me.”
“But,
sir, it is your title.”
“No, my
title is not lord. My title is Duke, and
that’s no fault of mine, I assure you.
And before you get any ideas in that little head of yours, don’t call me
duke either. That irks me as well.”
“But
then, what shall I address you as?”
“Well,
I always did find my name to be a decent one.
Start with that.”
The boy
looked horrified. “But…but for one such
as me to call you by your name. It would—“
“Yes,
yes, I know. It would be a scandal. A terrible thing that would result in you
being banished. Or something like that. Am I right?”
The boy nodded. “Well, frankly, I
don’t care about any of that. Besides,
right now, there’s only two people here.
And since I’m the one telling you to call me by my name, you can be
reasonably assured that you will not be lynched for it.”
“But…but…” The boy clearly was not convinced.
“Look,
if it makes you feel better, it’s not just you.
I ask all my employees to call me by my name. I know it’s improper, but all those titles
and honorifics just get to me. I don’t
like them and I doubt I ever will. So,
just call me by my name.” The boy looked
at his shoes and shuffled his feet. “If
it makes you feel better, you can still call me by my title in public.”
“Yes…” The boy paused. His mouth contorted and shifted around before
continuing. “George.” He cringed, like
he was expecting to be struck by lightning at any moment.
“There,
you see? That wasn’t so hard, was it? Oh, yes, you can answer freely.”
“In
that case, it was very hard.”
“It’ll
get easier, I assure you. Now then, what
was it you wanted?”
The boy
thought for a moment. Whatever news he
had brought had gotten lost in his young mind.
His eyes lit up when he remembered.
“Oh,
yes. I have news, George.”
George
smiled at the boy’s use of his name. “What
is it then?”
“You
have received an invitation to the royal hunt.
The king himself wishes you to join him in three days at the royal
palace for ox and deer hunting.”
“Is
that so? Huh, imagine that. I thought he’d never ask. Too many people to invite, you know. Well, I guess I’d better get ready. Don’t want to keep Julian waiting, now do I?” The boy’s eyes opened wide. To mention the name of a duke was one thing,
but the king? That was very nearly blasphemous. “Something wrong? Oh, yes, of course. You wouldn’t know, would you? Our illustrious King Julian hates being
called by titles and honorifics even
more that I do. He’s just better at
hiding it.”
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Pretty sure being called by a title all the time would get on my nerves after awhile as well. I know it's important in some cases, but I can imagine it'd get annoying after hearing it enough times.
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