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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, 10 Apr. 2024
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
The politesse recommended by Attlee, Bevin, and others had gained the American Jews almost nothing.
—Amy Davidson Sorkin, The New Yorker, 2 Nov. 2020
But Peck is just as much the keeper of the flame of the precision postmodernists like William H. Gass, another Midwesterner who had a way with metaphor and a burning fury against politesse.
—Mark Athitakis, Washington Post, 6 Nov. 2019
With flattery and French politesse, President Emmanuel Macron delicately maneuvered around Trump, partly by playing to the President’s ego.
—Robin Wright, The New Yorker, 27 Aug. 2019
The responses are eye-opening, but do not necessarily represent the gold standard of politesse.
—Ajc Homepage, ajc, 24 Nov. 2017
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 25 Apr. 2024.
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