courteous

English

Etymology

From Middle English curteis, from Old French curteis (French courtois), from cort (“court”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɜːti.əs/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɝti.əs/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Adjective

courteous (comparative more courteous, superlative most courteous)

1. Showing regard or thought for others; especially, displaying good manners or etiquette.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:polite

   Antonyms: discourteous, uncourteous; see also Thesaurus:impolite

   a courteous gentleman   a courteous gesture

   • 1818, John Keats, “Book III”, in Endymion: A Poetic Romance, London: […] T[homas] Miller, […] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC, page 149, lines 932–935:

     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; [...]

   • 1958 August, “More Light on Brunel”, in Railway Magazine, page 516:

     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.

Derived terms

• courteously
• courteousness
• discourteous
• overcourteous
• uncourteous

Related terms

• courtesy

Translations

showing regard for others

• Arabic: مُهَذَّب (muhaḏḏab), مُؤَدَّب (muʔaddab)
• Belarusian: ве́тлівы (vjétlivy)
• Bulgarian: учти́в (bg) (učtív), внима́телен (bg) (vnimátelen), ве́жлив (bg) (véžliv)
• Catalan: cortès (ca)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 有禮貌 / 有礼貌 (jau⁵ lai⁵ maau⁶), 斯文 (si¹ man⁴)

  Mandarin: 有禮貌 / 有礼貌 (zh) (yǒulǐmào), 客氣 / 客气 (zh) (kèqi)

• Czech: zdvořilý (cs), slušný (cs)
• Danish: høflig (da), beleven (da)
• Dutch: hoffelijk (nl)
• Esperanto: ĝentila (eo)
• Faroese: ærutur
• Finnish: kohtelias (fi)
• French: courtois (fr), poli (fr)
• German: höflich (de), zuvorkommend (de), aufmerksam (de)
• Greek: αβρόφρων (el) (avrófron)
• Hebrew: אדיב (he) (adiv)
• Hindi: विनम्र (hi) m (vinamra), शालीन (hi) (śālīn)
• Ido: jentila (io)
• Irish: lách, sibhialta
• Italian: cortese (it)
• Japanese: 丁寧 (ja) (ていねい, teinei), 礼儀正しい (ja) (reigitadashii), 思いやりのある (omoiyarinoaru)
• Latin: cōmis (la)
• Macedonian: у́чтив (účtiv), љу́безен (ljúbezen), внима́телен (vnimátelen), куртоа́зен (kurtoázen)
• Maori: hūmārika
• Middle English: curteis, semly
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: høflig

  Nynorsk: høfleg

• Ottoman Turkish: نازك (nâzik), كبار (kibar), تربیه‌لو (terbiyeli)
• Persian: مؤدب (fa) (mo'addab)
• Plautdietsch: heeflich
• Polish: uprzejmy (pl), grzeczny (pl)
• Portuguese: cortês (pt)
• Russian: любе́зный (ru) (ljubéznyj), ве́жливый (ru) (véžlivyj), обходи́тельный (ru) (obxodítelʹnyj), учти́вый (ru) (učtívyj), внима́тельный (ru) (vnimátelʹnyj), куртуа́зный (ru) (kurtuáznyj) (archaic)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: учтив

  Roman: učtiv (sh)

• Slovak: zdvorilý, slušný
• Slovene: vljuden (sl)
• Spanish: cordial (es), cortés (es)
• Swedish: artig (sv), hövlig (sv)
• Turkish: kibar (tr), nazik (tr), efendi (tr)
• Ukrainian: вві́чливий (uk) (vvíčlyvyj)

Anagrams

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