Other forms: pleasantries
A pleasantry is a polite remark made to be agreeable. Exchange pleasantries, after the usual pleasantry, a few pleasantries.
The content does not matter and everybody knows it — pleasantries are a way of signalling goodwill before business, and skipping them reads as rudeness in most cultures. It once meant a joke, which is where the pleasant in it points.
1nounpleasantryA polite remark made to be agreeable.
“After a few pleasantries about the weather, the manager got down to business.”
pleasantry is a remark.
Pleasant plus -ry, probably after French plaisanterie, a joke. The English word softened from joking to politeness.
Middle French
plaisanterie
English, today
pleasantry
From pleasant + ry, probably modelled on Middle French plaisanterie.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA