# Renaissance linguists - Tell me "You're welcome" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 6, 2005, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renaissance-linguists-tell-me-youre-welcome/320435 "2005-09-06T23:11:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2005, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renaissance-linguists-tell-me-youre-welcome/320435/1 "2005-09-06T23:11:10Z")
There’s been a perennial question bugging the heck out of us at Faire. We all know “prithee” means “please” - it’s actually a contraction of “pray thee” and “gramercy” is “thank you” but none of us have a clue what the counterpart to that is. What would be the term for “You’re welcome”? ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renaissance-linguists-tell-me-youre-welcome/320435/2 "2005-09-07T18:49:26Z")
Just a bump to the left… 110 reads, but no responses? ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renaissance-linguists-tell-me-youre-welcome/320435/3 "2005-09-07T19:03:41Z")
> [@gotpasswords](#): > > “gramercy” is “thank you” but none of us have a clue what the counterpart to that is. I feel a little smarter today – I had never previously heard that “gramercy” ever meant something like “thank you”. There’s a town nearby called Gramercy, LA … I only know of the term as a proper noun. That said, the American Heritage dictionary gives [the goods on the origin of the interjection “gramercy”](http://www.yourdictionary.com/ahd/g/g0218400.html): > [@](#): > > [Middle English _gramerci_, from Old French _grand merci_ : _grand_, **great** ; see _grand_ + _merci_, \*\*thanks \*\* ; see _mercy_.] Sorry, don’t know of any archaic forms of “You’re welcome”. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renaissance-linguists-tell-me-youre-welcome/320435/4 "2005-09-07T19:25:41Z")
Gotpasswords, you may find the following site interesting reading – [How to Speak Like an Elizabethan](http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:wwCRJiKD2ogJ:www.rhiannonmims.com/ourwedding/A%2520Guide%2520to%2520Renaissance%2520Language.pdf+%22archaic+forms%22,+%22prithee%22,+%22gramercy%22&hl=en). Scroll down to pg 10 to learn of many Elizabethan equivalents for everyday modern phrases. Unfortunately, “you’re welcome” is not included. Maybe it was “you’re welcome” back then, too? Any Shakespearian experts to vouch for use of “you’re welcome” in the Bard’s works? ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/96bed5/32.png) [@Cat\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Jones)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renaissance-linguists-tell-me-youre-welcome/320435/5 "2005-09-07T19:29:12Z")
Off the top of my head “Gramercy” is used when big favours have been granted, (I presume it is an abbreviation of ‘Grand Merci’, a sort of ‘big thank you’.) I can’t think of a case where I’ve seen a cheery “you’re welcome” resposne. It wouldn’t be appropriate. ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renaissance-linguists-tell-me-youre-welcome/320435/6 "2005-09-07T19:50:18Z")
To answer this question, I did a search on Shakespeare’s plays. The answer seems clear enough. From _Cymbeline_: > [@](#): > > CAIUS LUCIUS > I am sorry, Cymbeline, > That I am to pronounce Augustus Caesar– > Caesar, that hath more kings his servants than > Thyself domestic officers–thine enemy: > Receive it from me, then: war and confusion > In Caesar’s name pronounce I 'gainst thee: look > For fury not to be resisted. Thus defied, > **I thank thee for myself.** > > CYMBELINE > **Thou art welcome, Caius.** > Thy Caesar knighted me; my youth I spent > Much under him; of him I gather’d honour; > Which he to seek of me again, perforce, > Behoves me keep at utterance. I am perfect > That the Pannonians and Dalmatians for > Their liberties are now in arms; a precedent > Which not to read would show the Britons cold: > So Caesar shall not find them. I suspect that “You’re welcome” was also used. Keep in mind that “you” for first person singular was originally used toward someone of greater rank than oneself. I saw an example in another play of “You’re welcome,” but it was not in direct reply to “thank you.” I also suspect that in response to “thank you” such phrases as “'tis nothing” were employed, as they are today. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renaissance-linguists-tell-me-youre-welcome/320435/7 "2005-09-07T20:07:59Z")
Apparently, “you’re welcome” simply hadn’t been invented. I guess that’s why some people will occasionally use the painfully awkward “I be thanked” if a situation really and truly calls for “you’re welcome!” To my ears, they should be spanked for that. “It were nothing” also gets used, and that seems to be the best we can come up with. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renaissance-linguists-tell-me-youre-welcome/320435/8 "2005-09-07T20:10:56Z")
Nothing like typing in a response and being called away before hitting Post… ---
**Author:** ![Ezstrete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ea924/32.png) [@Ezstrete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ezstrete)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renaissance-linguists-tell-me-youre-welcome/320435/9 "2005-09-07T20:34:04Z")
> [@gotpasswords](#): > > Nothing like typing in a response and being called away before hitting Post… In W.S. Times it was also common to greet a guest .or stranger,with the term"well recieved" ,or ,“well met”!, as in,“Hail .goodfellow, well met!” But this fell by the wayside with the introduction of the German/Dutch greeting “wellkommen” EZ ---
**Author:** ![andygirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a9adbd/32.png) [@andygirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andygirl)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renaissance-linguists-tell-me-youre-welcome/320435/10 "2005-09-07T20:45:29Z")
> [@gotpasswords](#): > > Apparently, “you’re welcome” simply hadn’t been invented. > > I guess that’s why some people will occasionally use the painfully awkward “I be thanked” if a situation really and truly calls for “you’re welcome!” To my ears, they should be spanked for that. > > “It were nothing” also gets used, and that seems to be the best we can come up with. The OED has citations for welcome going back as far as Beowulf, but their first attestation of the exact phrase “you are welcome” or “you’re welcome” is 1907. Of course as an earlier poster mentioned, phrases like “thou art welcome” were present in Shakesperean times, and given how the English pronoun system has collapsed in modern english, the 1907 date is hardly surprising. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2005, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renaissance-linguists-tell-me-youre-welcome/320435/11 "2005-09-07T20:45:31Z")
Well, where did “you’re welcome” get the modern meaning? By itself, “welcome” has its parallels in other languages – _willkommen_ or _bienvenidos_, both of which I parse to literally mean, as in English, “well come,” something that’s well received. In English, though, we use “you’re welcome” as a response to thank you, which is _not_ done in German or Spanish, but it makes sense in English: “Thanks for the apples.” And then, “Oh, you’re welcome to those apples,” and then just later shortened to “You’re welcome.” In German (as kind of in English) when someone says thanks, you say “please.” (Like, “oh, please, you’re welcome to them.”). Or in Spanish, “it’s nothing.” So with “welcome” firmly established in German and Romance languages, why did it start getting used in response to “thank you” in English, and when?