Prithee 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. 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
Yellow-bellied sea snake word for "tunny fish", which presumably refers to the habitat or what Daudin thought they ate. The specific name "platurus" is a combination of the Ancient Greek words "platys" "flat" and "oura" "tail", referring to the flattened tail. The word "Pelamis" is a feminine noun and means young or small tunny fish. In 1872, Stoliczka introduced the name "Pelamis platurus" (still the most used scientific name by scientists today), but used the incorrect ending "-us" instead of "-a" which a feminine noun requires. A few recent examples exist of scientists' beginning to use the grammatically correct name "Pelamis platura", e.g.,