Crossword Genius

Honoured gentleman sounding a bit subservient? (3)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

sir

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'honoured gentleman sounding a bit subservient?' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.

'sounding a bit subservient?' is the wordplay.
'a bit' says to take the initial letters (I've seen 'bit of' mean this).
'subservient?' becomes 'ir' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
The first letter of 'sounding' is 's'.
's'+'ir'='SIR'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for sir that I've seen before include "Title of Kt or Bart" , "... ___ John Major" , "Way to address gentleman" , "address to teacher" , "Male form of address" .)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.
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