curtsey

English

woman making a curtsey

Alternative forms

• curtsy

Etymology

Shortened from courtesy, 16th c. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term. needs reference, expansion

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɝtsɪ/
• IPA^(key): /ˈkɜːtsɪ/
• Hyphenation: curt‧sey

Noun

curtsey (plural curtsies or curtseys)

1. A small bow, generally performed by a woman or a girl, where she crosses one calf of her leg behind the other and briefly bends her knees and lowers her body in deference.

   I refused to make so much as a curtsey for the passing nobles, as I am a staunch egalitarian.

   • 1868, Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

     ...making stately curtsies, and sweeping her train about with a rustle...

   • 1928, D.H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley's Lover

     No caps were touched, no curtseys bobbed.

Hypernyms

• (gesture): congee, congé, conge

Translations

small bow of knees and lowered body, usually by a female

• Bulgarian: ревера́нс (bg) m (reveráns)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 屈膝禮／屈膝礼 (zh), 屈膝礼 (zh) (qūxīlǐ)

• Danish: kniks n (small bow), nej (da) n (greater bow, rare), nejning c (obsolete)
• Dutch: nijging (nl) f
• Finnish: niiaus (fi)
• French: révérence (fr) f
• German: Knicks (de) m
• Hungarian: pukedli (hu)
• Icelandic: hneiging (is) f, hnébeyging f
• Irish: umhlú m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: riverenza (it) f
• Japanese: おじぎ (ojiki) (bow)
• Korean: 인사 (ko) (insa)
• Polish: dygnięcie n
• Portuguese: cortesia (pt) f, reverência (pt) f
• Russian: ревера́нс (ru) m (reveráns), кни́ксен (ru) m (kníksɛn), приседа́ние (ru) n (prisedánije)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: кникс m

  Roman: kniks (sh) m

• Spanish: reverencia (es) f
• Swedish: nigning (sv), knix

Verb

curtsey (third-person singular simple present curtseys or curtsies, present participle curtseying, simple past and past participle curtseyed)

1. To make a curtsey.

   The hotel's staff variously curtsied, nodded, and bowed to the owner as she passed.

   • 1841, Charles Dickens, Barnaby Rudge

     "I’m sure you’ll excuse me, sir," said Mrs Varden, rising and curtseying.

   • 1861, George Eliot, Silas Marner

     On the other hand, Mrs. Ladbrook was standing in skull-cap and front, with her turban in her hand, curtsying and smiling blandly...

   • 1887, H. Rider Haggard, Allan Quatermain

     'I be as nothing in the eyes of my lord,' and she curtseyed towards him...

   • 1890, James Russell Lowell, Address in Publications of the Modern Language Association of America

     But DANTE was a great genius, and language curtseys to its natural Kings.

   • 1903, W.E.B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk

     He curtsied low, and then bowed almost to the ground, with an imperturbable gravity that seemed almost suspicious.

   • 1908, Caroline Crawford, Folk Dances and Games

     The gentleman bows and the lady curtesys (measure eight).

Hypernyms

• congee, congé, conge

Translations

to make a curtsey

• Bulgarian: правя реверанс (pravja reverans)
• Danish: neje
• Dutch: nijgen (nl)
• Finnish: niiata (fi)
• French: faire la révérence, révérencier (fr)
• German: knicksen (de)
• Hungarian: pukedlizik
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Icelandic: hneigja sig í hnjáliðunum
• Italian: fare la riverenza
• Norwegian: neie (no)
• Polish: dygać (pl)
• Portuguese: cortejar (pt)
• Spanish: inclinarse (es), hacer una reverencia
• Swedish: niga (sv)

Further reading

• curtsey on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• curtesy