please

Meanings

1. 1
   adv

   Used to make a request more polite.

   Please pass the bread.

2. 2
   verb

   To make someone happy or satisfied.

   Her presentation pleased the executives.

3. 3
   verb

   To want or choose to do something.

   You can do as you please.

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.

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