RALPH: Reverence derives from the Latin, reverentia, meaning a gesture or title of respect.

SARAH: The phrase “save your reverence” was used similarly to how we use “begging your pardon” today– to apologize before expressing something offensive or vulgar.

RALPH: This is how Shakespeare used the phrase in the version of Romeo and Juliet which we are using – Mercutio ridicules Romeo by pretending “love” is obscene.

SARAH: But that’s not how Shakespeare’s originally used it.

RALPH: In Shakespeare’s day, the contracted version, sur-reverence, was sometimes used as a noun signifying that most common of vulgar words.

SARAH: If someone said, “You’re stuck up to your ears in a pile of sur-reference” ...

RALPH: That was a polite way of saying, “You’re stuck up to your ears in a pile of crap.”

SARAH: Which is essentially what Mercutio says to Romeo in Shakespeare’s first version of Romeo and Juliet.

RALPH: “We'll draw thee from the mire of this sur-reverence, love, wherein thou stickest up to the ears.”

SARAH: Apparently, Shakespeare later decided that calling love a swamp of shit was a bit too much, even to the sarcastic Mercutio.