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Please

//pliːz// adv, intj, verb

Definitions

Adverb

1
Used to make a polite request. not-comparable
"Please, pass the bread."

Adverb

1
used in polite request wordnet

Intj

1
Used as an affirmative to an offer. often
"Near-synonym: thank you"
2
Said as a request to repeat information. Cincinnati
"Customer while ordering: Can I get a [unintelligible]? Restaurant employee: Please?"
3
An expression of annoyance, impatience, or exasperation.
"Oh, please, do we have to hear that again?"
4
An expression of annoyance, impatience, or exasperation.
"Please with that damn harmonica!"

Verb

1
To make happy or satisfy; to give pleasure to. ambitransitive
"Her presentation pleased the executives."
2
give pleasure to or be pleasing to wordnet
3
To desire; to will; to be pleased by. ergative, intransitive
"Just do as you please."
4
give satisfaction wordnet
5
be the will of or have the will (to) wordnet

Etymology

Etymology 1

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.

Etymology 2

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.

Etymology 3

Etymology 4

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

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