dustybnny

Please. It is a fundamental word of the English language that is embedded into our brains before we are five-years-old. Yet, the full meaning of this word and its true potential in not full understood. It is a password, it is a comfort, and it is a plea of sympathy. The word happened upon the English language by way of old French, which stretches its roots from the Latin origins.

"No means I don't get it. Yes means I get it. Please is what I say when I want something." These are answers that might have come from a four-year-old when asked the meaning of these words. A toddler is not familiar enough with formalities to know that saying please is a way to be courteous in asking something of a person. Thus they do not truly learn why it is that they are supposed to say please. They just know it is a bridge that they must first traverse in order to get whatever it is that they seek. Please is a password to them.

"If you please" and "if it pleases you" are the original phrases that have been compressed to today's single word term. Thus it fits that please and pleasure share the same roots. Today one word begs formality while the other seems much more selfish in nature respectively. Upon a closer examination please, albeit a formality, is a selfish word nonetheless. Please is the gateway to getting something for oneself. Whether it is to acquire, to gain admittance, or to beg a favor, all serve to benefit the asker is some form or another.

Please is a noticed sign of desperation. A person will appeal to want, to need, to logic, and eventually to sympathy. That final plea to sympathy can come in just one word, please. There is no further reasoning; however, it is such a loaded word. That one word can even gain emphasis when repeated. By changing the tone of one's voice and accent of the word it can sound like a completely new plea with the repetition of that very same word. It makes for such a weak argument, but for some reason it can be very effective.

Having been introduced to the English language hundred of years ago, the word please will never leave. It has established its importance to our society from the day it is first learned. It is reflective of our selfish society. It will be the go to place as a last resort. Only the application of the word will determine how the word will evolve in its meaning in the future.