siree

   An emphatic form of ‘sir’, used mainly in North America, usually following the words ‘yes’ and ‘no’. Although the ‘sir’ in expressions like ‘Yes-sirree’, as it is sometimes written, or ‘No sirree’, was clearly of a vocative nature to begin with, it appears to have lost this sense for many speakers. The ‘siree/sirree’ element has become an emphatic suffix converting a simple ‘yes’ into ‘Yes indeed!’ and a ‘No’ into something like ‘Certainly not!’

   In Face to Face, by Edward A. Rogers, a woman says: ‘I can’t say I’m undulating with happiness myself right now. No sir-ee!’ This is spoken to her husband, but one has the strong feeling that she would have used the same expression had she been talking to a woman friend.