Etymology

please

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Today it means: To make happy or satisfy; to give pleasure to. Full definition →

Middle English plesen ← Old French plaise ← Latin placeō
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please · verb1

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*pleHk-“pleasingness, permission”
  2. Latin · derived fromplaceō“to please, to seem good”
  3. Old French · derived fromplaise
  4. Middle English · inherited fromplesen
  5. English todayplease

From Middle English plesen, plaisen, borrowed from Old French plaise, conjugated form of plaisir or plaire, from Latin placeō (“to please, to seem good”), from the Proto-Indo-European *pleHk- (“pleasingness, permission”). In this sense, displaced native Old English līcian, whence Modern English like.

please · adverb, interjection2

  1. French · calque ofs'il vous plaît
  2. English todayplease

Short for if you please, an intransitive, ergative form taken from if it please you which is a calque of French s'il vous plaît, which replaced pray. If it please you is a present subjunctive form, but most current uses of please are not parsed that way.

please · interjection3

  1. German · semantic loan frombitte“please; excuse me”
  2. English todayplease

Semantic loan from German bitte (“please; excuse me”).

Words from the same roots

Latinplaceō all →

pleasure

Frenchs'il vous plaît all →

if you please

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.