Pedants' Paradise

[kernelbogey]

It used to be the case that if you wanted to ask someone to do something the form was either: "Will you please ...?" or to avoid any hint of peremptoriness: "Would you please ... ?" (Answer Yes or No); alternatively "I wonder if you would be so kind as to ...".

This now seems frequently to take the form "May you please ..." (not as yet "Might you please ..." with the possible answer "I might do if so inclined ..."). But how does 'May you...?' mean anything?

I too have not encountered 'may you please...' with the meaning 'will you please'. However - and I'm unsure of the relevance of this - I have encountered 'May you be well', 'May you be happy' and others in the sense of a wish for the other. This seems close to FF's observed usage in that the speaker in each case is hoping for a future outcome for or by the other: in FF"s example, the desire for an action; in my example, the desire for the other's wellbeing. (This may have originated in the US.)

[kernelbogey]

Danke, bitte; grazie, prego; merci, je t'en prie; gracias, de nada &c ...

I told a new twentyish member of the waiting staff at my local cafe that I had appreciated her responses to my 'thank yous' being 'You're welcome', rather than 'No worries', and added 'Just a personal thing'. Straightaway she responded 'I get it'. I felt a genuine communication had just occurred.

[vinteuil]

And that kind of womenswear light jackety thing was called a 'bollero', spelled bolero I think, wasn't it? Before Torvill and Dean days. Or is it called a bə-LAY-ro in Shepherd's Bush?

... for the jacket, wiki has -
"A bolero jacket or bolero (pronounced /ˈbɒləroʊ/ or /bəˈlɛəroʊ/ in British English and /bəˈlɛəroʊ/ in American English)^[2] is a more formal garment of similar construction but made of stiffer fabric, essentially a short tailored jacket, inspired by the matador's chaquetilla. Like the shrug, the sides of the bolero only meet at one point."

derived from the Espanish -

https://dle.rae.es/bolero

[french frank]

"oh yeah, it's that, um, Bollero, innit... played by that geezer, what's 'is name? Ravle".

And that kind of womenswear light jackety thing was called a 'bollero', spelled bolero I think, wasn't it? Before Torvill and Dean days. Or is it called a bə-LAY-ro in Shepherd's Bush?

[Serial_Apologist]

... and in the Market when you were old enough you would say Wham, Bang, Thank You Ma'am

My favourite "vignette moment" of Shepherds Bush market was at the time of Torvill and Dean's ice ring spectacular, when a BBC reporter went around the stalls playing a tape of "Bolero", asking the public if anyone recognised the music and could name it. One stall holder said, "oh yeah, it's that, um, Bollero, innit... played by that geezer, what's 'is name? Ravle".