Polite is please and thank you, holding the door, waiting your turn. It is the small everyday behaviour that makes a person easy to be around.
The adverb is politely — she refused politely — and the noun is politeness; the opposites are rude and impolite. Polite is not the same as kind. A polite refusal is still a refusal, and polite applause is the thin clapping that tells you nobody enjoyed it. When somebody is being polite about your cooking, they are hiding what they really think. Polite conversation and polite society mean the safe, mannered kind, and both phrases carry a light edge of mockery.
1adjectivepoliteShowing good manners and respect for other people.
“He is polite to everyone, including the people who are rude to him.”
synonyms: courteous, well-mannered
2adjectivecorrectCorrect and pleasant on the surface, without real warmth or interest.
“She gave a polite smile and looked back at her phone.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
Polite is Latin polītus, 'polished', the past participle of poliō, 'to polish, to smooth' — the same word that gives English polish, and beyond it a Proto-Indo-European root meaning 'beat'. A polite person is a polished one, with the rough surface rubbed away.
Proto-Indo-European
*pel- (beat)
Latin
polītus — polished
English, today
polite
Built from
From Latin polītus (“polished”), past participle of poliō (“to polish, smooth”); see polish.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA