polite

From Latin polītus (“polished”), past participle of poliō (“I polish, smooth”); see polish.

• IPA^(key): /pəˈlaɪt/

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polite (comparative politer or more polite, superlative politest or most polite)

1. Well-mannered, civilized.
   • Alexander Pope

     He marries, bows at court, and grows polite.

   • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 4, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:

     I told him about everything I could think of; and what I couldn't think of he did. He asked about six questions during my yarn, but every question had a point to it. At the end he bowed and thanked me once more. As a thanker he was main-truck high; I never see anybody so polite.

   It's not polite to use a mobile phone in a restaurant.

2. (obsolete) Smooth, polished, burnished.
   • Isaac Newton

     rays of light falling on a polite surface

The one-word comparative form politer and superlative form politest exist, but are less common than their two-word counterparts more polite and most polite.

• See also Thesaurus:polite

• impolite
• rude

• over-polite
• politeness
• polite society

• polish

polite (third-person singular simple present polites, present participle politing, simple past and past participle polited)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To polish; to refine; to render polite.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Ray to this entry?)

• “polite” in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989, →ISBN.

• polite in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• polite in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

• piolet

polite f pl

1. feminine plural of polito

• pilote

polīte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of poliō

• polite in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• polite in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers