# "v/r" in a business email? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 3, 2004, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-r-in-a-business-email/227379 "2004-02-03T21:51:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![AirFarce1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/airfarce1/32/298_2.png) [@AirFarce1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AirFarce1)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2017, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-r-in-a-business-email/227379/21 "2017-11-25T00:14:33Z")
i can also confirm that this is a common closing in less formal email in the Air Force. I see it 25-30 times per day. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2017, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-r-in-a-business-email/227379/22 "2017-11-26T04:12:20Z")
Just wanted to add, my cousin, whose initials are JT and who writes his own correspondence for his small business, puts at the bottom left margin of each letter he sends out, “JT/vss.” I asked once who VSS was, and he said it was his nonexistent “Very Sexy Secretary.” ---
**Author:** ![PrimaLena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/898d66/32.png) [@PrimaLena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PrimaLena)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-r-in-a-business-email/227379/23 "2022-01-19T01:14:02Z")
It may stand for “Victoria Regina” for Queen Victoria, or “Victor Richard.” ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-r-in-a-business-email/227379/24 "2022-01-19T01:24:33Z")
Even if you only read the title of the thread, why would you think that? Were you speculating that this might have been a business email sent in the nineteenth century? ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-r-in-a-business-email/227379/25 "2022-01-19T01:31:54Z")
> [@robby](#): > > V/R = “Very Respectfully.” This salutation is properly used for a junior writing to a senior. > > R/ = “Respectfully.” This salutation is used for a senior writing to a junior. > > For formal writing, you should write out the salutation. The “V/R” and the “R/” are used for more informal writing, such as e-mail and handwritten notes. Nitpick: these are valedictions, not salutations. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-r-in-a-business-email/227379/26 "2022-01-19T01:40:06Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > Were you speculating that this might have been a business email sent in the nineteenth century? I love seeing old examples of those, woodcuts done in ASCII art. It was a simpler and more genteel time. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-r-in-a-business-email/227379/27 "2022-01-19T01:56:38Z")
Or the sender fancied he was the Queen. It’s a common delusion of grandeur. From Wikipedia: “…a patient who has fictitious beliefs about his or her power or authority may believe himself or herself to be a ruling monarch who deserves to be treated like royalty…Some patients believe they are…the Queen of the United Kingdom” ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-r-in-a-business-email/227379/28 "2022-01-19T02:05:26Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > Were you speculating that this might have been a business email sent in the nineteenth century? They had 'em by 1840 or 50 or so; they were just called “telegrams” (…but how many Queens Victoria were there?) ---
**Author:** ![Dissonance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-r-in-a-business-email/227379/29 "2022-01-19T02:09:41Z")
Four-year necro by a first time poster of a fourteen-year necro by another first time poster isn’t what amazes me. That this topic had been viewed 121,000 times with only 22 replies is what boggles my mind. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-r-in-a-business-email/227379/30 "2022-01-19T02:17:36Z")
Do bot reads count? ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-r-in-a-business-email/227379/31 "2022-01-19T05:43:11Z")
hahahahahah, “CPL NENNO”. What a loser. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-r-in-a-business-email/227379/32 "2022-01-19T06:03:43Z")
> [@Bear\_Nenno](#): > > What a loser. So that guy didn’t make it to GEN NENNO by now? ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-r-in-a-business-email/227379/33 "2022-01-19T07:16:45Z")
From the original e-mail as quoted by OP (emphasis added): > [@](#): > > Bla bla bla bla bla **you suck** bla bla bla bla. Nobody seems to have noticed, even after lo! these many years, but that doesn’t sound “Very Respectfully” at all. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2022, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-r-in-a-business-email/227379/34 "2022-01-19T15:53:18Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > > [@robby](#): > > > > V/R = “Very Respectfully.” This salutation is properly used for a junior writing to a senior. > > > > R/ = “Respectfully.” This salutation is used for a senior writing to a junior. > > > > For formal writing, you should write out the salutation. The “V/R” and the “R/” are used for more informal writing, such as e-mail and handwritten notes. > > Nitpick: these are valedictions, not salutations. You’re absolutely right! Good catch. Not sure why I wrote that back in 2004. I know (and knew) that a salutation is a greeting, but I’ve never heard the formal term for a closing before now. In school I think we used the term “complimentary close.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-r-in-a-business-email/227379.md?page=1)