yours truly

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Phrase

yours truly

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

   Hypernym: valediction

   Coordinate terms: yours faithfully, yours sincerely

   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
• Dutch: ondergetekende (nl) m or f
• 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)

Further reading

• valediction on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• truly yours