the.com/please and thank you
the two-word bribe that turns demands into favors and strangers into allies.
means the minimum viable politeness required to ask for things without sounding like a tyrant.
from please is short for if it please you, a groveling 1300s courtly phrase; thank you descended from thanks, rooted in the same word as think, because gratitude was originally just remembering what someone did for you.
please etymologyliterally means may this please you
thank and thinkshare the same germanic root
toddler testfirst social contract kids are taught
magic wordsnickname since victorian nursery manners