phatic

comparative more phatic · superlative most phatic

1. human sciencesPertaining to words used to convey any kind of social relationship and whose meaning is otherwise either deemphasized or absent.

   Some dialects of a language may use a certain term or phrase in a phatic way, even if other dialects don't.

   3 more examples

   You needn't be angry about the insincerity of shopkeepers' how-are-you greetings. Well-adjusted people understand that the question is phatic in the context and that that's usually no problem.

   Generally speaking, statements in WE are expected to be of a tautologous nature, thus fulfilling the essential phatic nature of speech.

   1978, Anthony Burgess, 1985

   Dispensing with phatic chitchat, he began straightaway to tell the story of his “people.”

   2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 467

plural phatics

1. human sciencesA phatic utterance.