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Gammerstang commented on the word save reverence
(verb) - (1) A kind of apologetical apostrophe, when anything was said that might be thought filthy or indecent. It was contracted into sa'reverence, and thence corrupted into sir- or sur-reverence, which in one instance became the substitute for the word which it introduced, as, "I trod in a sa'reverence."
--Robert Nares' Glossary of the Works of English Authors, 1859
(2) Used apologetically in introducing some remark that might offend the hearer. "Who, saving your reverence, is the divell himselfe." Merchant of Venice.
--Walter Skeat's Glossary of Tudor and Stuart Words, 1914
(3) A native woman of Devon, in describing something not particularly delicate, apologized with the phrase, "saving your reverence." This is not uncommon in the country, "saving your presence" being sometimes substituted. It occurs in Romeo and Juliet and is of great antiquity, being found in Mandeville's Travels.
--James Halliwell's Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, 1855
January 19, 2018