Attested since 1671 (bosastede). Borrowed and adapted fromSpanishvuesasted or some similar variant, from the addressing formvuestra merced(“your grace”). The expected result from the inherited equivalentvossa mercee would be*vocé, but it seems to never have developed, the usual form beingvós until Spanish borrowings started replacing it. CompareCatalanvostè,Portuguesevocê,Spanishusted.
vostede m orf orsg (pluralvostedes)
- (formal)you
- Synonym:(informal or neutral)ti
De onde évostede?- Where areyou from? (formal)
1697, José Gil Taboada,Grande loita de luceiros:Señora may (os luceyros
Din)vostede s'afrontou
Sen causa, porque esta loyta
Ll'a de dar mais relumbros.- Lady mother -the luminaries
Say-your grace took offense
With no motive, because this fight
Will give you more shine
- Althoughvostede is used as a second-person pronoun, it takes third-person verb forms and pronouns.
- Seoane, Ernesto Xosé González;Granja, María Álvarez de la;Agrelo, Ana Isabel Boullón (2006–2022), “vossa merçede”, inDicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval [Dictionary of dictionaries of Medieval Galician] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela:Instituto da Lingua Galega
- Barreiro, Xavier Varela; Guinovart, Xavier Gómez (2006–2018), “uossa merçe”, inCorpus Xelmírez: corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval [Corpus Xelmírez: linguistic corpus of Medieval Galicia] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela:Instituto da Lingua Galega
- Barreiro, Xavier Varela; Guinovart, Xavier Gómez (2006–2018), “vosa merçed”, inCorpus Xelmírez: corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval [Corpus Xelmírez: linguistic corpus of Medieval Galicia] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela:Instituto da Lingua Galega
- Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “vostede”, inDicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela:Instituto da Lingua Galega
- Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández,Ernesto Xosé González Seoane,María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “vostede”, inTesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela:Instituto da Lingua Galega
- Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “vostede”, inTesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela:Instituto da Lingua Galega,→ISSN
