Wednesday, June 1, 2011

The origin of USTED

The personal pronoun we have for formal treatment comes from the polite expression VUESTRA MERCED (“Your Worship”) which changed through the centuries until became USTED.
This phonetic evolution was: 
 
VUESTRA MERCED > VUESA MERCED > VUESARCED > VUESANCED > VOACÉ, VUCÉ, VUSTED > USTED


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