Pleases

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To cause someone to feel happy or content with something
2. To bring joy, approval, or comfort to a person by fulfilling desires or expectations
3. To delight or satisfy someone by meeting their wishes or preferences

Etymology: "Pleases" is the third-person singular present of "please," so the real story sits with the verb it comes from. In Middle English, "plesen" and "plaisen" were borrowed from Old French, where "plaise" was a conjugated form of "plaisir" or "plaire," both descending from Latin "placere," meaning "to please" or "to seem good." Before this French word took over, English had its own verb for the same idea: Old English "lician," which survives today as "like." The most surprising twist is how "please" entered polite speech. It is short for "if you please," a phrase calqued from French "s'il vous plaît." That phrase once used the present subjunctive of "please" in a conditional sense, "if it please you," but in modern use the expression is no longer parsed that way. It replaced the older courtesy "pray," so the everyday word for politeness is essentially a shortened conditional wish.

Synonyms: satisfies, delights, gratifies

Antonyms: displeases, dissatisfies, offends