Sire is an archaic respectful

form of address Address terms are linguistic expressions used by a speaker to start conversation or call someone. George Yule defines address form as a word or phrase that is used for a person to whom speaker wants to talk. Address forms or address terms are so ...

to reigning

king King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

s in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. In French and other languages it is less archaic and relatively more current. In Belgium, the king is addressed as "Sire..." in both Dutch and French. The words "sire" and " sir", as well as the French " (mon)sieur", the Spanish "

señor Señor or Senor may refer to: * Dan Senor (born 1971), American Canadian columnist, writer, and political adviser See also * Honorific § Spanish-speaking cultures * Señorita (disambiguation) * * {{disambiguation, surname ...

", and the Portuguese "

senhor ''Senhor'' (, abb. ''Sr.''; plural: ''senhores'', abb. ''Sr.es'' or ''Srs.''), from the Latin ''Senior'' (comparative of '' Senex'', "old man"), is the Portuguese word for lord, sir or mister. Its feminine form is ''senhora'' (, abb. ''Sr.a'' ...

", share a common etymological origin, all ultimately being related to the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

''. The female equivalent form of address is

dame ''Dame'' is a traditionally British honorific title given to women who have been admitted to certain orders of chivalry. It is the female equivalent of ''Sir'', the title used by knights. Baronet, Baronetesses Suo jure, in their own right also u ...

or dam.

References

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