Arabic /usta:dh/ Persian /usta:d/ Span /ustedh/

[Rick Mc Callister]

>I want to propose that Vuestra Merced of Spanish was the origin of the
>/ustadh/ form in Arabic and Farsi.  The Spanish word "usted" can be traced to
>the abbreviation of "vuestra merced".  It's clearly documented in Spanish
>etymological dictionaries.

	Are you sure it has "vuestra merced"?
	Because if it does, then it means that the entry in question is
unreliable. "Vuestra merced" is a hypercorrect form of "vuesa merced".
Given that vuestra/o/s is the possesive form of the PLURAL vosotros/as, the
form betrays an ignorance of grammar. Vos is the corresponding singular
form of vosotros [as well as tu/, of course]. The possessive form of vos in
the era we're speaking of is vuesa/o/s [now tu is used instead in countries
that still use vos]. In Old Spanish, vos was the plural form and seems to
have gradually conformed to the same usage as French vous, given that
vosotros later arose to distinguish the plural form.
	So, "vuestra merced" is about as logical as addressing the British
royal family as "thy highnesses".
	Spanish etymological dictionaries have a fair share of errors and
often betray the authors's prejudices in favor or against arabicisms, etc.
Corominas is generally regarded as the best of the lot and even he has an
occasional howler

[snip]
>Perhaps the Moors were the first people in Spain to pronounce the abbreviation
>Vsted as /usted/.    At a time when Arabic was the low code it would have been
>very acceptable to borrow the form from Spanish.  Then as Arabic rose in
>importance the Spanish may have absorbed the Arabic usage of the Vsted form.
>I wish I had more time to include some documentation, but I have to prepare
>for classes tomorrow.
>
>Timothy Goad
[snip]

	My suspicion is that there very likely was a conflation of folk
forms of "vuesa merced" & usta:dh --provided that usta:dh was used, say, in
Mozarabe. A lot of "mozarabisms" entered Spanish in the 1500s for various
reasons: the 1st Spanish dictionary was written in Sevilla in 1492; with
the "discovery" of the Americas, Andalusia was the most vibrant region in
cultural terms; much of the literature of the time focuses on Sevilla and
often features its slang.
	As Miguel and others have pointed out, Arabic was a spent force in
cultural terms in regard to the rest of Spain. Any arabicisms that entered
Spanish around this time were most likely picked up via mozarabe or
directly from North Africa --where a series of "crusades" alternated with
trade.