In February 2025, Perspectus Global surveyed 2,000 people in the UK for Trinity College London about what it called “polite-isms.” Thirty-six percent said they use “With all due respect” to mean “You’re wrong, and here’s why.” Thirty percent use “I hear what you’re saying” to mean “I completely disagree with you.” Half said they use such phrases regularly at work.
I’ve Got a Great Idea
The Italian Job, a British film, opened in London on 5 June 1969. It ends with the gang’s coach hanging over a cliff, its rear teetering over the drop. Charlie Croker, played by Michael Caine, says: “Hang on a minute lads. I’ve got a great idea.”
The film ends there, and the cliffhanger is never resolved.
Gone for a Burton
In Royal Air Force slang of the Second World War, a man who had “gone for a Burton” had gone missing or, more likely, had been killed on operations. A man who had “bought it” had been killed or shot down.
The earliest known record of “gone for a Burton” dates from 1941. Nobody is sure where the phrase came from, and about a dozen origins have been suggested.
Pretty Sticky
From 22 to 25 April 1951, during the Korean War, the British 29th Infantry Brigade fought the Battle of the Imjin River against a Chinese offensive. Lance-Corporal Stone wrote in a letter: “We had it pretty sticky for a few days – our casualties up to Wednesday were approx. 1000.”
Small Earthquake in Chile
“Small earthquake in Chile, not many dead” is a famous example of a dull headline. The journalist Claud Cockburn is said to have written it in the early 1930s, in a competition among sub-editors at The Times for the dullest headline. Some quote it as “not many hurt.”
No copy of The Times with that headline has been found. The line did appear decades later in Not the Times, a spoof made by Times journalists in 1979.
Safe Return Doubtful
An advertisement said to have been placed by the explorer Ernest Shackleton reads: “Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in event of success.”
Researchers have searched The Times and other newspapers and have not found it. Its earliest known appearances are in books from the 1940s. The advertisement is probably a myth.
Please Look After This Bear
In A Bear Called Paddington, first published on 13 October 1958, a small bear is found at Paddington station in London. Around his neck is a label: “Please look after this bear. Thank you.”
The author, Michael Bond, linked the label to the child evacuees of the Second World War. “They all had a label round their neck with their name and address on,” he said.
Please, Sir
In Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist, the starving boys of the workhouse draw lots to decide who will ask for more food after supper. The lot falls to Oliver. He goes up to the master and says: “Please, sir, I want some more.”
The master turns very pale and aims a blow at Oliver’s head with the ladle. The board is horrified. A gentleman in a white waistcoat declares: “That boy will be hung.”
Please in the Office
In 2019, the linguists M. Lynne Murphy and Rachele De Felice published a study of requests in workplace emails in the Journal of Politeness Research. They analyzed 675 requests from each of a British and an American collection of emails.
In British English, they found, please is “a marker of conventional politeness rather than face-threat mitigation.” British writers add it as routine courtesy rather than to soften an imposition.
Uncomfortable Asking
In November 2024, the insurer Royal London published a survey of 1,231 UK pensioners, carried out by Censuswide. More than a third, 37 percent, said they find asking for help uncomfortable. Royal London described them as “stoic.”