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Nowadays, no one refers to a "polite" looking glass or houses "polite" and in good repair, but polite (or polit or polyt, as it was spelled in Middle English) originally meant simply "polished" or "clean." By the early 1600s, polite was being used of polished and refined people, and politeness had been penned to name the shining quality of such people. Politesse (a French borrowing) debuted in the late 17th century. All three words stem from Latin polire, which means "to polish" (and which is, by way of the Anglo-French stem poliss-, an ancestor of the English polish). Today we tend to use politeness for everyday good manners and reserve politesse for more formal courtesies.
Examples of politesse in a Sentence
Lilah Ramzi, Vogue, 26 Sep. 2024
Her body language changes, her voice goes into the upper register of ladylike politesse.
—Jonathan Van Meter, Vogue, 5 Sep. 2024
Decades of French lessons schooled me in the strict rules of politesse.
—Theresa Conroy, Travel + Leisure, 14 Aug. 2024
That’s the way it’s done in the Senate, where the politesse of a seemingly bygone political era still reigns supreme.
—Riley Beggin, USA TODAY, 13 May 2024
The politesse of reassurance may be desirable and decorous, but U.S. allies are not about to abandon their patron.
—Robert E. Kelly, Foreign Affairs, 22 Feb. 2022
Earlier, the girls had waved off a proffered map with the icy politesse of a Tour de France winner declining training wheels.
—Judith Stone, Discover Magazine, 11 Nov. 2019
In her interview, Welker seemed fed on the American tradition of treating every politician, even those complicit in an attempt to overturn the democratic tradition, with the utmost in politesse.
—Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 18 Sep. 2023
The avatars onscreen were often just rectangles or blobs, and the concepts had to stay within the bounds of dinner-table politesse.
—Neima Jahromi, The New Yorker, 22 Sep. 2021
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'politesse.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near politesse
Cite this Entry
“Politesse.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/politesse. Accessed 5 Nov. 2024.
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