<p>客 - guest</p>
<p>氣 - air. spirit ...</p>
<p>客氣 - in the spirit of a guest</p>
<p>When you're a guest in someone's house, you behave like a guest should, that is, be polite.</p>
<p>When you're a guest, your host might say “不要客氣” （don't behave like a guest). This is not to say you shouldn't be polite. It is rather their way of saying &quot;make yourself at home&quot;.</p>
<p>Another way to translate 不要客氣 is &quot;don't stand on ceremony&quot;. 客氣 encompasses both of these ideas - politeness and formality. Both are positive attributes, but too much of either tends to create distance. Being the right degree of 客氣 is truly an art.</p>

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2021-01-03T19:27:30.283Z
2021-01-03T20:15:45.957Z
2021-01-03T20:15:45.957Z
monalisa
<p>The literal meaning of 客气 would seem to be something like &quot;air guest.&quot; How did that transform into &quot;polite&quot;? And is there a resource I can turn to to find out such things?</p>

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2021-01-03T18:14:25.617Z
客氣 should be intergreted as speaking "in a tone of guest".
ytlu
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2021-01-03T18:28:40.843Z
the air of guests, even in english we use "air" in this way
小奥利奥
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2021-01-04T08:50:58.213Z
I feel this is a duplicate of [How does 客 (kè, “customer, guest”) and 气 (qì, “gas, anger”) combine to give 客气 （kèqi, “polite”)?](https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/26939/how-does-%e5%ae%a2-k%c3%a8-customer-guest-and-%e6%b0%94-q%c3%ac-gas-anger-combine-to-give-%e5%ae%a2%e6%b0%94)
Becky 李蓓
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-01-06T01:31:32.460Z
@Becky李蓓 Indeed it is! Thanks for finding that.
Calion
<etymology>
How did 客气 come to mean "polite"?
# How did 客气 come to mean "polite"?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2021-01-03)

The literal meaning of 客气 would seem to be something like "air guest." How did that transform into "polite"? And is there a resource I can turn to to find out such things?

**Tags:** etymology

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: 客氣 should be intergreted as speaking "in a tone of guest".  
> **username_2**: the air of guests, even in english we use "air" in this way  
> **username_3**: I feel this is a duplicate of [How does 客 (kè, “customer, guest”) and 气 (qì, “gas, anger”) combine to give 客气 （kèqi, “polite”)?](https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/26939/how-does-%e5%ae%a2-k%c3%a8-customer-guest-and-%e6%b0%94-q%c3%ac-gas-anger-combine-to-give-%e5%ae%a2%e6%b0%94)  
> **username_0**: @Becky李蓓 Indeed it is! Thanks for finding that.  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_4 on 2021-01-03. Score: 7 | Accepted answer

客 - guest

氣 - air. spirit ...

客氣 - in the spirit of a guest

When you're a guest in someone's house, you behave like a guest should, that is, be polite.

When you're a guest, your host might say “不要客氣” （don't behave like a guest). This is not to say you shouldn't be polite. It is rather their way of saying "make yourself at home".

Another way to translate 不要客氣 is "don't stand on ceremony". 客氣 encompasses both of these ideas - politeness and formality. Both are positive attributes, but too much of either tends to create distance. Being the right degree of 客氣 is truly an art.


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