mynheer

plural mynheers · plural mynheeren · alternative mijnheer

1. Sir, as a polite form of address to a Dutchman or Afrikaner.

   My hand, bully; thou shalt have egress and regress; said I well? and thy name shall be Brook. It is a merry knight. Will you go, mynheers?

   c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]

   3 more examples

   But trifling apart, there is one thing certain, mynheeren, and that is, that some extraordinary event is taking place on board the Dutchman.

   [1883?], T[homas] P[roclus] Taylor, Vanderdecken; or, The Flying Dutchman. A Legendary Drama, in Four Acts. (Dicks’ Standard Plays, number 436), London: John Dicks, […], page 11, column 1

   I do not know, mynheeren, how far I am bound to accede to your request, and to bring forward for the consideration of the Council the document of which you have given me the outline.

   1913, Dorothea Fairbridge, That Which Hath Been, South Africa: T. Maskew Miller, page 220

   The Dutch mynheeren and mevrouwen everywhere are busily engaged in decorating their clean cities and no doubt they will all lift their glasses at the same time and drink the health of their good Queen with that famous national drink Holland gin.

   1948 August 27, The Freehold Transcript, volume LX, number 52, Freehold, N.J., page 4