Why do you write 'yours truly'?

It's a holdover from days of old, where people spoke - and wrote

• in a staggeringly over the top formal style, in which undying

protestations of eternal servitude were considered appropriate when dealing with any family, friend or acquaintenance.

Thus at the end of letters, they'd write things like, "Your most truly humble and sincerely obedient servant, Theodore Lawrence" or "Ever your most loyal and faithful servant, I remain your's in most sincere obedience, Arthur Pembroke" and the like.

"your's truly" is the contraction of all of that. Or even "your's", though most people leave off the possessive apostrophe (incorrectly, I might add). You'll also see "sincerely" by itself.

I've often wondered how today's texters would react to having to live in that era, where they never used one Word when two dozen would do!