Why do we say her majesty

World globe An icon of the world globe, indicating different international options. Get the Insider App. Click here to learn more. A leading-edge research firm focused on digital transformation. Mikhaila Friel. Since then, she has been a princess, a duchess, and of course, Her Majesty the Queen. And at the bottom of it, the example of Britain--of America-of Canada--and the rest of the Commonwealth--marching forward, carrying the flag of unity and cooperation will be the keynote to that great successful future that will be ours, that will belong to our children and our grandchildren.

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October 17, Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness, My Friends: There have been a few times in my life when I have wished that the gift of eloquence might have been conferred upon me.

But we have the power. The only thing to do is to put it together. Ladies and gentlemen, will you please rise with me and drink a Toast to the Queen.

Filed Under. Spoken Addresses and Remarks. State Dinners. Dominus , though O. Majesty was borrowed, ultimately from Latin and together with its meaning. Originally, during the Roman republic, the word maiestas was the legal term for the supreme status and dignity of the state, to be respected above everything else. Very succinctly, majesty, grace, honor, and royal highness are qualities of the exalted person being addressed, while lord, liege, and king are titles describing the superior relationship of the one addressed superior to me, that is.

I would venture that lord is a title while Majesty comes from the adjective majestic. So "your majesty" means "you who are majestic", while "my lord" means "the lord of me". Explaining "my lord" is easy, "my lord" is the person who is the lord of me. The function of the possessive your, her, his in "your majesty" or "her majesty" or "his royal highness" seems to be to indicate that the noun indicates a person, but this is some kind of archaic or rare usage.

A little late to this party, but it seems to me that no-one has made the most important point: namely that it's "my Lord", but "your Lordship" -- the point being that one refers to the individual directly "my Lord" , and the other refers to the same individual obliquely "your Lordship" , and is a kind of metonymy.

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