The Collaborative International Dictionary
Monseigneur \Mon`sei`gneur"\, n.; pl. Messeigneurs. [F., fr. mon my + seigneur lord, L. senior older. See Senior, and cf. Monsieur.] My lord; -- a title in France of a person of high birth or rank; as, Monseigneur the Prince, or Monseigneur the Archibishop. It was given, specifically, to the dauphin, before the Revolution of 1789. (Abbrev. Mgr.)
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
c.1600, from French monseigneur (12c.), title of honor equivalent to "my lord," from mon "my" (from Latin meum) + seigneur "lord," from Latin seniorem, accusative of senior "older" (see senior (adj.)). Plural messeigneurs.
Wiktionary
n. 1 (non-gloss definition: An honorific form of address for an eminent person in France, especially under the Ancien Régime.) 2 (context in particular English) (non-gloss definition A title of the dauphin Dauphin of France.)
Wikipedia
Monseigneur is an honorific in the French language. It has occasional English use as well, as it may be a title before the name of a French prelate, a member of a royal family or other dignitary.
Monsignor is both a title and an honorific in the Roman Catholic Church. In francophone countries, it is rendered Monseigneur, and this spelling is also commonly encountered in Canadian English practice. Nowadays, the title is used for bishops. In France the use monsignori are not called monseigneur but the more common monsieur l'abbé, as are priests. The plural form is Messeigneurs.
Usage examples of "monseigneur".
Et quand je serai vieille ou laide, Phoebus, quand je ne serai plus bonne pour vous aimer, monseigneur, vous me souffrirez encore pour vous servir.
I beseech you, messeigneurs, to mitigate the rigour of my sentence, and not to drive my soul to despair.
Monseigneur de Reys and had been used by him to represent the manner of the storming of Les Tourelles and their capture from the English.
It was, therefore, that on the day following the evening on which imprudent Ardea had jested so persistently upon a subject sacred to her that she rang at the door of the apartment which Monseigneur Guerillot occupied in the large mansion on Rue des Quatre-Fontaines.
By quiet, slow, mild Monseigneur Bianchi brushing ash off himself and taking his glasses off to polish them.
There were present Monseigneur Krasinski, the Prince-Bishop of Warmia, the Chief Prothonotary Rzewuski, whom I had known at St.
My purse was too lean to allow of my playing or consoling myself with a theatrical beauty, so I fell back on the library of Monseigneur Zalewski, the Bishop of Kiowia, for whom I had taken a great liking.
The change consisted in the appearance of strange faces of low caste, rather than in the disappearance of the high-caste, chiseled, and otherwise beatified and beatifying features of Monseigneur.
It was, in fact, Damoiselle Fleur-de-Lys de Gondelaurier and her companions, Diane de Christeuil, Amelotte de Montmichel, Colombe de Gaillefontaine, and little de Champchevrier, who were staying at the house of the Dame de Gondelaurier, a widow lady, on account of the expected visit of Monseigneur de Beaujeu and his consort who were to come to Paris in April for the purpose of selecting ladies of honour for the Dauphiness Marguerite.
Monseigneur thought it would not be convenable for me to be with him until he had found a lady suitable to be my gouvernante, you see.
If you do not like it, Monseigneur, I am sorry, but I am not going to permit that my son abducts this Mary Challoner and then does not marry her.
It took four men, all four a-blaze with gorgeous decoration, and the chief of them unable to exist with fewer than two gold watches in his pocket, emulative of the noble and chaste fashion set by Monseigneur, to conduct the happy chocolate to Monseigneur's lips.
Sire, I have composed a most pertinent epithalamium for Mademoiselle of Flanders and Monseigneur the most august Dauphin.
Projectors who had discovered every kind of remedy for the little evils with which the State was touched, except the remedy of setting to work in earnest to root out a single sin, poured their distracting babble into any ears they could lay hold of, at the reception of Monseigneur.
Thou shalt be qualified to succeed Mistigri in the card-parties of Monseigneur the King.