English

Pronoun

your Honor

1. (formal, obsolete, addressing someone of higher rank or status than oneself) you
   • 1705 (original: 1626), James Howell, Esquire, Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ, Familiar Letters Domestic and Forren, page 177:

     Touching the firſt, I refer my ſelf to your honor’s favorable opinion, and the character which my Lord S. and others ſhall give of me

   • 1847, George Washington, The Writings of George Washington: Being His Correspondence, Addresses, page 26:

     The numbers of the French have been greatly magnified, as your Honor may see by a copy of the enclosed journal of a person, whom I sent out to gain intelligence.

2. (formal, addressing a judge or magistrate) you

Usage notes

Although this phrase is used as the second person pronoun, the verb it governs is conjugated in the third person.