What does 'do the civil' mean?

[joham]

We have to do the civil to him.

Could I ask what the sentence above mean? 'We have to be polite, but in a formal way and not friendly to him'? This sentence is taken from Jespersen's ESSENTIALS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR', in the chapter which deals with the article 'the', without any context.

 

[MikeNewYork]

Your understanding of "civil" is correct, but the sentence is not. "We have to be civil to him."

 

[probus]

I agree with MikeNewYork, but on the other hand your source is authoritative. I speculate that "We have to do the civil to him" is BrE dialect, perhaps Cockney.

 

[Raymott]

Otto Jespersen, 1860 - 1943, might not be the most authoritative source still on modern English idioms.
The Grammar (1949) is downloadable as a historical curiosity from:
http://arrow.latrobe.edu.au:8080/vital/access/manager/Repository/latrobe:34325

 

[Tdol]

I speculate that "We have to do the civil to him" is BrE dialect, perhaps Cockney.

It would work and I could imagine it being used, but I haven't heard it.

 

[probus]

Here is an example of "do the civil" from 1823.

http://books.google.ca/books?id=5t4...BQ#v=onepage&q="do the civil" cockney&f=false

So probably it is archaic or even obsolete.

 

[MikeNewYork]

It appears that it was never common. Ngram.

 

[probus]

A question to Joham: Where did you find this phrase?