señ

Señ is not an independent word in standard Spanish; it commonly appears as the initial stem of the honorific titles Señor, Señora, and Señorita. These forms are used to address or refer to men and women respectively. In contemporary Spanish, the conventional abbreviations are Sr. for Señor, Sra. for Señora, and Srta. for Señorita; the usage of a separate Seń. abbreviation is rare and not standard in modern style guides, though it may be encountered in older texts or in certain typographic conventions.

The root señor derives from Latin senior meaning elder, and the feminine señora from the same root with phonological and morphological development; Señorita is the diminutive form, literally meaning “little señor.”

The letter ñ, present in all three main forms (Señor, Señora, Señorita), is a distinct character in Spanish orthography. Its tilde marks a palatal nasal and affects pronunciation. In digital typography and data processing, “señ” may appear in truncated or ASCII-encoded data where the tilde is omitted, or as part of indexing where only the root “señ” is stored; in proper Spanish typography the tilde must be preserved.

In historical contexts, honorifics such as Señor and Señora carried social and cultural significance, reflecting gender and status. Modern usage tends toward simplicity and equality, with many formal documents adopting neutral forms or full names rather than honorifics.