Pretty as you please

Posted by Smokey Stover on April 18, 2009 at 17:10

In Reply to: Pretty as you please posted by ESC on April 16, 2009 at 15:21:

: : I am attempting to establish if the phrase 'pretty as you please' was used in America prior to the 1840s.

: All I've found so far is that "pretty" meaning well-behaved dates back to 1878/New England. "Dictionary of American Regional English," Volume IV by Joan Houston Hall (2002, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., and London, England). Page 344-345.

The use of the comparative "as you please" to lend emphasis to adjectives and adverbs dates at least as far back as the 16th century. The OED does not provide any example of its use with "pretty" (meaning attractive) before 1928, but every literate American probably was familiar with the use of "as you please." If you are thinking of including it in your own historical novel, fear not. It would have been plausibly spoken and readily understood in any of the colonies.

If, on the other hand, you have found it used by an American author before the 1840s, doubtless someone will be interested, although it will not be regarded as surprising news.
SS