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
Prop-word Prop-word A prop-word is a word with little or no semantic content, used to provide a "support" on which to hang a modifier. The word most commonly considered as a prop-word in English is "one" (with the plural form "ones"). The prop-word "one" takes the place of a countable noun in a noun phrase (or determiner phrase), normally in a context where it is clear which noun it is replacing. For example, in a context in which hats are being talked about, "the red one" means "the red hat", and "the ones we bought" means "the hats we bought". The