yours truly

yours truly

English

Etymology

Recorded in the late 1700s as a closing in a letter. Since the mid-1800s for "I", "me", or "myself".[1]

Pronunciation

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Phrase

yours truly

1. (idiomatic) Used to close a note or letter.

   Coordinate terms: yours faithfully, yours sincerely

   Hypernym: valediction

   Please write back soon! Yours truly, Alice.

Usage notes

• In British English, yours truly is reserved for informal correspondence. In more formal writing, yours sincerely or yours faithfully are preferred.

Translations

closing in a note or letter

Chinese: Cantonese: 謹上,谨上 (gan2 soeng5) Mandarin: 謹上／谨上 (zh) (jǐnshàng) Danish: kærlig hilsen Finnish: ystävällisin terveisin Galician: sinceramente seu Georgian: თქვენი ერთგული (tkveni ertguli), მუდამ თქვენი (mudam tkveni) Hungarian: üdvözlettel Polish: z poważaniem (pl) Russian: и́скренне ваш (ískrenne vaš) Tagalog: sumasainyo, sumasaiyo, lubos na sumasainyo

Pronoun

yours truly

1. (idiomatic, informal, humorous) I, me, or myself.

   This one was created by yours truly.

   • 1951, C.S. Forester (novel), James Agee (screenplay), The African Queen, spoken by Charlie Allnut (Humphrey Bogart):

     Nobody in Africa, but yours truly, can get a good head of steam on the old African Queen.

Derived terms

• yours trulies

Translations

(idiomatic) me or I

Danish: undertegnet n Finnish: allekirjoittanut French: votre humble serviteur (fr) m, votre serviteur (fr) m German: meine Wenigkeit (de) f Hungarian: jómagam (hu), szerény személyem, csekélységem Norwegian: Bokmål: undertegnede Russian: ваш поко́рный слуга́ (ru) m (vaš pokórnyj slugá) Spanish: un servidor (es) m, una servidora (es) f (formal), menda (Spain, colloquial) Swedish: undertecknad (sv)

References

1. “yours truly”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.

Further reading

• valediction on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• truly yours