honorificadj.n.

1650 J. Bulwer Anthropometamorphosis vii. 83 They had no other Nurses lesse honorifique than Eunuchs.

1700 tr. Present State Europe July 144 Their first Deliberations related to a Ceremonial purely Honorifick.

1792 H. Grattan Speech Of Henry Grattan on Addr. to His Majesty, at Opening Irish Parl. 17 They have made the honorific prerogative a nuisance.

a1846 W. S. Landor Wks. (1868) I. 396/1 Generous to the robber, honorific to the poisoner and assassin.

1895 P. Gardner in P. Gardner & F. B. Jevons Man. Greek Antiq. iii. vi. 243 In honorific sacrifice, the deity accepts a gift; in piacular sacrifice he demands a life.

1904 V. V. Banford in J. E. Hand Ideals of Sci. & Faith 120 The distinction between honorific and humilific occupations.

1983 J. Steinberg tr. P. Arlacchi Mafia, Peasants & Great Estates ii. 112 Taking a life, especially killing a fearful enemy, was honorific in the highest degree.

2008 T. Spawforth Versailles ix. 197 She was entitled..to place her stool in the most honorific position, immediately to the queen's right.

a1774 R. Fergusson Poems (1785) 95 Tho' you knew His honorific name, you noted not.

1778 J. P. Fabricius & J. C. Breithaupt Gram. Malabar Lang. iv. 17 This Plural..is not of the honorifick, (the honorifick termination belonging properly but to the Singular).

1816 M. Keating Trav. (1817) I. 239 The epithet Abu, father, is honorific.

1861 F. Hall in Jrnl. Asiatic Soc. Bengal 1861 (1862) 30 204 (note) The S′rí is to be regarded as honorific.

1879 Trans. Philol. Soc. 1877–9 617 The verb [in Korean] has a simple affirmative form, a conditional, an interrogatory, an honorific, a causative, and several others.

1883 R. Ferguson Surnames as Sci. ii. 29 Gamol, signifying ‘old’, probably in the honorific sense of old descent.

1904 H. J. Weintz Japanese Gram. Self-taught 79 Respect and humility are indicated by means of Honorific Prefixes and Suffixes.

1988 T. G. Foulk in K. Kraft Zen 164 The honorific title of rōshi or ‘venerable teacher’.

2012 S. Song Politeness & Culture in Second Lang. Acquisition ii. 56 The Korean honorific system consists of three components used concurrently: honorific noun, honorific verb, and honorific suffix.

1778 J. P. Fabricius & J. C. Breithaupt Gram. Malabar Lang. iv. 16 The Plural is often used instead of the honorifick of the Singular; and a Woman speaking of her Husband, always useth the Plural.

1879 Bailey in H. Spencer Princ. Sociol. II. 153 They use none of the honorifics so profusely common in Singhalese; the pronoun to, thou, being alone used.

1889 Athenæum 2 Mar. 273/1 Where these honorifics occur [in Japanese] the sentence can always be easily turned so as to give their significance, which is often of a merely pronominal character, the honorific indicating a reference to the person addressed or forming the subject of the thought.

1922 S. Lewis Babbitt xvi. 203 It gave to Americans..such unctuous honorifics as High Worthy Recording Scribe and Grand Hoogow to add to the commonplace distinctions of Colonel, Judge and Professor.

1966 G. D. Prideaux (title) The syntax of Japanese honorifics.

2007 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 25 Apr. d5/5 Mr. Barber was so nervous he couldn't even get the honorific right. ‘Your sirness,’ he began, before launching into a stammering story.