curtsy

Etymology

It is a variant from English courtesy,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]} shortened by the loss of a syllable, according to the SOED,^[10] and now kept apart from that noun in form.^[2] The verb is formed from the noun.^[2][4][5] The longer noun is from Old French curteisie, from curteis (“courteous”), from curt (“court”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

An act or gesture expressing submission or deferential respect: 1525, in Lord Berners's translation of Froissart.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged has 1533,^[11] and Barnhart and Etymonline the 1540s.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

The two spellings were at first interchangeable for a show of respect by a gesture, especially in the phrases do courtesy and make courtesy, and the modern meaning arose from these in the late 16th century.^[7] The bending of the knees is mentioned specifically from 1575, according to Barnhart,^[4][5] and the bow was not at first limited to women.^[5][2] The figurative verb, to show deference, appears in Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus (1594).^[2] To express something by curtsying is recorded from Richardson's Sir Charles Grandison (1753),^[2] and the extended use for a dip or bob of objects from Dickens's Barnaby Rudge (1841).^[2] The spelling curtsey is an accepted variant,^[6][11][10] and American regional pronunciation spellings include curchy, recorded in Virginia.^[12] Johnson (1755) simply referred the reader from this spelling to courtesy.^[13]

Timeline

• 1525 – an act or gesture of submission or respect.^[2]
• before 1556 – verb, to make a curtsy, in Udall's Ralph Roister Doister.^[2] Barnhart dates the verb before 1553,^[4] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged to about 1553.^[11]
• 1566 – verb, transitive, to make a curtsy to a person.^[2]
• 1575 – noun, a bow made by bending the knees.^[4]
• 1594 – verb, figuratively, to show deference.^[2]
• 1753 – verb, to express by curtsying.^[2]
• 1841 – verb, to dip or bob.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A formal gesture of greeting or respect, made chiefly by women and girls, in which the knees are bent and the body lowered, often with one foot placed behind the other: The girls dropped a curtsy as the duchess walked past.^{[6][11][2][10]}
2. Any gesture of courteous recognition or deference.^[11][2]

Verb

1. To make a curtsy: She curtsied to the king.^[6][11][2]
2. To show deference or subservience, figuratively.^[2]
3. To move in a way that recalls a curtsy; to dip or bob.^[2]
4. (archaic) To express something by curtsying.^[11][2]

Related words

• courtesy
• courteous
• court

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
7. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ Cassidy, Frederic G. & Joan Houston Hall (eds.) (1985–2002), Dictionary of American Regional English, vols I–IV, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.