In the nineteenth century, milord (also milor) (French pronunciation [milɔʁ]) was well known as a word that continental Europeans (especially French), whose jobs often brought them into contact with travellers (innkeepers, guides, etc.), commonly used to address Englishmen or male English-speakers who seemed to be upper-class (or whom they wished to flatter) – even though the English-language phrase "my Lord" (the source of "milord") played a somewhat minor role in the British system of honorific forms of address, and most of those addressed as "milord" were not in fact proper "lords" (members of the nobility) at all. The word "milord" was occasionally borrowed back into the English language in order to be used as a sarcastic or jocular reference to British travellers abroad.