Look up prithee in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Prithee is an archaic English interjection formed from a corruption of the phrase pray thee ([I] ask you [to]), which was initially an exclamation of contempt used to indicate a subject's triviality.[1] The earliest recorded appearance of the word prithee listed in the Oxford English Dictionary is from 1577, while it is most commonly found in works from the seventeenth century.[2] The contraction is a form of indirect request that has disappeared from the language.[3]
Prithee is the most widely known example of second person object enclitics. Linguists consider it to have been the final step in the grammaticalisation of the verb pray.[4] The eventual use of prithee outside the thee/thou usage signalled its transition into a discourse particle.[5]
There has been extensive scholarship investigating the difference in usage of prithee as opposed to pray you, both in terms of politeness and grammaticalisation.[6] Because prithee eventually came to be used in the same context with the word you, it is considered to have developed into a monomorpheme.[7]Prithee was almost always used as a parenthesis in order to introduce indirect questions and requests.
Prithee and pray you often coincide in Early Modern English texts, and the difference between the two terms has been debated by scholars. Scholars such as Roger Brown and Albert Gilman have suggested that prithee was an ingroup indicator. Other scholars suggest that it is simply the more deferential form.[8] The relationship between the two is complicated by the phrase beseech you, which was used in the same time period and was clearly the form used most deferentially.[9]
Although the closest Modern English equivalent of prithee is please, or "could", the two terms presume different attitudes within the addressee. While please accompanies a request addressing itself to the positive desire of the addressee, as in "if it please you," prithee accompanies a request which addresses itself to the threat of being answered in the negative, as though the request were against the addressee's wishes.[10] Stated otherwise, the word please suggests that the person being addressed is willing to comply with the request, whereas the word prithee suggests that he or she is not willing. This switch from stating the speaker's contrary desire to stating the speaker's wish not to impose signaled a cultural shift in the English-speaking world in which politeness became stated negatively rather than positively. Wider repercussions are observable in the replacement of such phrases as "excuse me" and "pardon me," which request understanding or forgiveness, with "I am sorry," which instead acknowledges the speaker's remorse.[11]
In the Complete Works of Shakespeare, prithee occurs 228 times while pray thee occurs only 92 times.
^John Stoddart (1858). Glossology: or, The Historical Relations of Languages. R. Griffin and Company. p. 198. Prithee linguistics.
^Minoji Akimoto (2000). "The Grammaticalization of the Verb 'Pray'". Pathways of Change: Grammaticalization in English. John Benjamins Publishing Company: 73. ISBN 90-272-3056-0.
^Cindy L. Vitto (2006). Grammar by Diagram: Understanding English Grammar through Traditional Sentence Diagraming. Broadview Press. p. 11. ISBN 1-55111-778-9.
^Hans Lindquist; Christian Mair (2004). Corpus Approaches to Grammaticalization in English. John Benjamins Publishing Company. pp. 241–242. ISBN 1-58811-523-2.
^Ulrich Busse (2002). Linguistic Variation in the Shakespeare Corpus. John Benjamins Publishing Company. p. 204. ISBN 1-58811-280-2.
^Helena Raumolin-Brunberg (2002). Variation Past and Present: VARIENG Studies on English for Terttu Nevalainen. Société Néophilologique. p. 146. ISBN 951-9040-16-1.
^"Definition and Examples of Monomorphemic Words". ThoughtCo. Retrieved 8 September 2020.
^Richard J. Watts; Peter Trudgill (2002). Alternative Histories of English. Routledge. p. 225. ISBN 0-415-23356-9.
^Beatrix Busse (2006). Vocative Constructions in the Language of Shakespeare. John Benjamins Publishing Company. p. 355. ISBN 90-272-5393-5.
^Andreas H. Jucker; Irma Taavitsainen (2008). Speech Acts in the History of English. John Benjamins Publishing Company. p. 241. ISBN 978-90-272-5420-7.
^Andreas H. Jucker (2008). "Politeness in the History of English". English Historical Linguistics 2006: Selected Papers from the Fourteenth International Conference on English Historical Linguistics (ICEHL 14), Bergamo, 21–25 August 2006. 2. John Benjamins Publishing Company: 4. ISBN 978-90-272-4811-4.
Look up prithee in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Prithee is an archaic English interjection formed from a corruption of the phrase pray thee ([I] ask...
best reserved awhile - for the Scythians may be conquered at any time. Prithee, lead me thy host first into Greece. I long to be served by some of those...
the Cage" 4:51 6. "The Changing Room" 4:01 7. "The Jack of Hands" 3:52 8. "Prithee/Liquidation Day" 9:39 9. "Rainbow's End" 7:10 Total length: 50:49...
Caliban by John Hamilton Mortimer with the caption "Do not torment me prithee / I'll bring my wood home faster" 1878 – Ernest Renan, Caliban, suite de...
of the day? ... Falstaff: Indeed, you come near me now, Hal ... And, I prithee, sweet wag, when thou art a king, as God save thy Grace – Majesty, I should...
breeding, it is probably possible to produce a much more productive plant. "I prithee, let me bring thee where crabs grow; and I with my long nails will dig...
impatient of the rein" Miscellaneous Sonnets 1835 To ------ 1835 "“Wait, prithee, wait!” this answer Lesbia threw" Miscellaneous Sonnets 1835 Said Secrecy...
spiked in Google searches in June 2020. Yalcinkaya, Gunseli (2020-06-23). "Prithee! Bardcore is the medieval music trend taking over YouTube". Dazed. Archived...
Hold-Up Ensemble See America First The Language of Flowers Damsel, Damsel (Prithee Come Crusading with Me) The Lady I've Vowed to Wed Hail the Female Relative...
Thought It Peculiar" 1966 Changes Tommy Boyce, Bobby Hart Davy Jones "(I Prithee) Do Not Ask for Love" 1966 Missing Links Volume Two Michael Martin Murphey...
(Repeat last two lines) Let's start, says Dick, Aye aye, says Nick And I prithee, fiddler, play Agreed, says Hugh, and so says Sue, For this is a holiday...
“were enthusiastically received”. Another of Amy’s vocal compositions, ‘Prithee Maiden’, sees out the century by featuring at the inaugural concert of...
by" (1688) Z 268, Catch, "Pox on you for a fop" (Unknown) Z 269, Catch, "Prithee be n't so sad and serious" (Unknown) Z 270, Catch, "Room for th'express"...
by numerous madrigalists was Cor mio, deh non languire ("Dear heart, I prithee do not waste away"). In addition to his decisive influence on madrigal...
" While getting her dress tailored, Gertrude remarks, "Tailor Poldavy, prithee, fit it, fit it: is this a right Scot? Does it clip close, and bear up...
Peter, Paul and Mommy (1969). Oscar Brand and Joni Mitchell recorded "Prithee Pretty Maiden" for the Canadian folk music TV program Let's Sing Out, broadcast...
show thee every fertile inch o' the island; And I will kiss thy foot. I prithee, be my god. The choice of title was one of several references to The Tempest...
pliest thy trade in this devil's-smithy— Which is the poison to poison her, prithee? He is with her, and they know that I know Where they are, what they do:...
15. "You Just May Be the One" (TV version) Nesmith Nesmith 2:00 16. "(I Prithee) Do Not Ask for Love" Michael Martin Murphey Dolenz 2:58 17. "Circle Sky"...