quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- polite
- polite: [15] Someone who is polite is etymologically ‘polished’ – indeed that is what the word originally meant in English (‘The arch within and without was hiled [covered] with gold polite’, Mirror of man’s salvation 1450). This had passed metaphorically into ‘refined’ by the 16th century, but not until the 17th century did the modern sense ‘having refined manners’ emerge. It was borrowed from polītus, the past participle of Latin polīre ‘polish’ (source of English polish).
=> polish - polite (adj.)
- late 14c., "polished, burnished" (mid-13c. as a surname), from Latin politus "refined, elegant, accomplished," literally "polished," past participle of polire "to polish, to make smooth" (see polish (v.)). Used literally at first in English; sense of "elegant, cultured" is first recorded c. 1500, that of "behaving courteously" is 1748 (implied in politely). Related: Politeness.