"It is up to His Majesty to decide." "Yes, my lord." Paraphrasing here, but I saw these two examples in the same piece of writing. Why is "my lord" lower case?
it is lower case when it is being used as a common noun instead of a proper noun. Basic rule is if you can replace it with the persons name then it is capitalised. Without seeing the context of my lord I don't know why.
it is because of the my. Yes my Charles doesn't work. Yes, Lord would be a capital but Yes my lord isn't.
Ah, I see. So it would be capitalized in: "Yes, Lord." But then that makes me wonder a bit about the "His Majesty" again. Here you have two words replacing the name, too.
When you address a king your never say Yes Majesty - it Yes Your Majesty - those words come as one. Please excuse posts holding baby.
Don't "my lord" come together as one as well, unless you're referring to the Abrahamic God? The above "Yes, Lord." sounds to me like someone who thinks he's having a conversation with his deity. Wouldn't a servant address his master as "my lord" or "his lordship" always?
It is English so My Lord would be a judge in the UK system. my lord could be an obselete term of affection. yes Lord would probably be followed by a name. It is unlikely in the UK with the honour system unless talking to a judge it is referring to someone as their proper name.
Ok, thanks. To be honest it's still not perfectly transparent to me what the rules are, but if it's the correct way of doing it, I'll do that. In a story set in ye olden days, a servant would address his master as "my lord" and "his lordship" in lower case, always. Right?
yes - it is a term like yes sir. It is a term of respect rather than a name. It would have also been used in a romantic sense
To clarify thinhs a litle further, it might be handy to think in terms of titles. ..my lord, is not a title. Lord Beaverbrook is. His Majesty is a title. Confusion is understandable. Though perhaps the waters are muddied here by deferential instincts. I can't imagine many would think 'my servant' should be capitalised.
