Courtesy

How to spell courtesy

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce courtesy

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does courtesy mean?

1. nounPolite, considerate behaviour towards other people.
2. nounSomething provided free of charge as a polite gesture, often used before another noun.

Courtesy in a sentence

• Common courtesy suggests that you reply to the invitation promptly.

• The hotel runs a free courtesy shuttle to the airport every hour.

• He thanked the staff out of simple courtesy rather than obligation.

• The garage lent her a courtesy car while her own was being repaired.

Where does courtesy come from?

Language of origin: French

The word comes from the Old French corteisie, meaning the polished manners expected at a royal or noble court, and it entered English in the early 1200s. That word was built on cort (the modern 'court'), which itself traces back to the Latin cohors, an enclosure or yard and later the entourage gathered around a ruler. The idea was that the refined behaviour learned in attendance on a lord was the model of good manners for everyone else, so 'courtesy' came to mean polite and considerate conduct in general. The very same root sits inside 'courteous', 'courtier' and even the verb 'court', which all share the notion of attentive, well mannered behaviour. The spelling trap lives in the middle: the silent unstressed vowel writes as 'e' (court-E-sy), not 'i', and the ending is '-sy', echoing its older French shape rather than the '-tesy' some writers expect.

How the word is built

• court (royal household)
• -esy (from Old French -eisie, denoting conduct or quality)