thank you, interjectional phrase

Origin:
English, South African Dutch, Afrikaans, DutchShow more Special sense of general English, influenced by South African Dutch dank u, later Afrikaans dankie, from Dutch bedanken to decline, refuse.
A polite refusal: dankie sense 2. So as noun phrase, an utterance of this phrase.
1833 J.C. Chase in S. Afr. Almanac & Dir. 92One thing more..is to be recommended; if he value his meals, —..never when invited to eat, reply with a genteel thank ye, (dank u) as that piece of politeness is understood throughout the colony as a negative, the disagreeable consequences of which the writer of this has more than once found to his cost.
1837 ‘N. Polson’ Subaltern’s Sick Leave 104Travellers must avoid..‘thank ye’..The latter is always taken as a refusal (Dank u); as indeed it is in every language but English. This English mode of using ‘thank you’ is now becoming so well known on the continent of Europe, that is is no usual thing for a foreigner on making any offer and being thanked for it, to ask..‘Merci oui?’ or ‘Merci non?’.
1906 A.H. Watkins From Farm to Forum 17There dawned upon my memory the story of the Englishman in France who would say ‘merci’ when offered refreshment till he nearly died of hunger, and I came to the conclusion that ‘Thank you’ being literally translated into Dutch idiom meant ‘No thank you’.
1913 C. Pettman Africanderisms 496Thank you, In the Dutch-speaking districts of South Africa the Englishman needs to be careful how he uses this phrase, since to the Dutch it conveys the meaning of ‘No, thank you’.
1971 Personality 19 Feb.‘Will you eat with us?’ asked the farmer. ‘Thank you,’ said Chase politely. ‘Oh? A pity you are not hungry,’ retorted the farmer. ‘Excuse us while the family eats and we will talk afterwards.’ It was in this salutary fashion that Mr Chase learnt to reply to a farmer’s invitation with the words ‘Yes, please,’ and not ‘Thank you’ — the latter being the accepted way of voicing a polite refusal.
1973 Drum 8 Oct. 14When anyone asked him to have a meal, he would say: ‘Thank you I have eaten.’ But his friends knew that he was starving.
A polite refusal: dankie sense 2. So as noun phrase, an utterance of this phrase.
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18331973
Test, nounn.theleweni, nounn.
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