politesse
/ˌpɒlɪˈtɛs
/noun [mass noun]
Formal politeness or etiquette: the suave, circumlocutory politesse of a consular official...
- Through a twenty-year correspondence, Otto von Habsburg has also shown me the manners and politesse of the Old World juxtaposed with the pragmatism and political sense of the new.
- The same could not be said for Foley, whose Midwestern politesse never quite gelled with the salty bare-knuckles feistiness that's become the DN's trademark.
- It sounds so unrealistically, unsophisticatedly direct - so lacking in politesse and not something that is actually done in the real world.
Origin
Early 18th century: French, from Italian politezza, pulitezza, from pulito 'polite'.