courteous
adjUK /ˈkɜːti.əs/ · US /ˈkɝti.əs/
Etymology From Middle English curteis, from Old French curteis (French courtois), from cort (“court”). By surface analysis, court + -eous. Compare typologically Czech zdvořilý (<~ dvůr), German höflich (<~ Hof). Also note Russian прийти́сь ко двору́ (prijtísʹ ko dvorú). Compare typologically civil, urbane. See pagan for the opposite.
1
Showing regard or thought for others; especially, displaying good manners or etiquette.
- a courteous gentleman a courteous gesture
- Nectar ran / In courteous fountains to all cups outreach'd; / And plunder'd vines, teeming exhaustless, pleach'd / New growth about each shell and pendent lyre; [...]1818, John Keats, “Book III”, in Endymion: A Poetic Romance, London: […] T[homas] Miller, […] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC, page 149, lines 932–935:
1 more example
- His exhortations to his assistants to waste no time in getting on with the job, and to be tactful and courteous with those outside the railway service with whom they had to deal, are as apposite today as they were a century ago.1958 August 23, “More Light on Brunel”, in Railway Magazine, page 516:
- Derived terms
- courteously, courteousness, discourteous, overcourteous, uncourteous