please

Sommaire

(Verbe) De l’ancien français plaisir « plaire ».

(Adverbe) (xix ^e siècle) Contraction de if you please, lui-même issu de if it pleases you, calque du français s’il vous plaît^[1].

please

Plaire.
- I’m very pleased and very touched, as my wife is, at your warm reception here. — (Robert F. Kennedy, Remarks at the University of Kansas, 1968)

please

S’il vous plaît, s’il te plaît (Marqueur de politesse d’une requête).
- Would you please let us through into the road? — (Lewis Carroll, Sylvie and Bruno, Chapitre V, 1889)
- Oh, please could you spare us a little water? — (Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat, Chapitre XIII, 1889)
- Just tie this handkerchief on for me, please, … — (Miles Franklin, My Brilliant Career, 1901)
- Please, please don’t trample over your overcoat and put your feet through the parcels. — (Stephen Leacock, Borrowing a Match, dans Literary Lapses, 1910)
- Mr. Sailor, won’t you row for me, please? — (Robert E. Howard, Sailors’ Grudge, 1930)
- — P-p-please, Raoul! I can give ya stars! Just drop the refrigerator on my head one more time!
  — Roger, I've dropped it on your head 23 times already! — (Who Framed Roger Rabbit, 1988)
Réponse affirmative pour une offre.
- "… Do you take sugar, my dear Duchess?"
  "Oh yes, please! …" — (Beatrix Potter, The Tale of the Pie and the Patty-Pan, 1905)