The word "curtsy" is a phonetic variant of "courtesy" — they are, etymologically and historically, the same word. Both descend from Old French cortesie (courtly behaviour, politeness), from corteis (courtly, having the manners of the court), from cort (court), ultimately from Latin cohors (enclosure, retinue). The divergence into two spellings reflects the gradual separation of the abstract concept (courtesy, meaning politeness) from the physical gesture (curtsy, meaning a specific bodily movement of respect).
In medieval European courts, the physical expression of deference took a variety of forms. Both men and women performed a bending gesture — typically bending the knees while inclining the head — that was called a "courtesy" because it demonstrated the refined manners expected at court. The same word covered both the behaviour and the values it expressed, just as "grace" can mean both divine favour and the physical elegance that supposedly reflects it.
The differentiation between bow (for men) and curtsy (for women) developed gradually between the 15th and 17th centuries. As male fashion shifted from robes and gowns to doublet and hose (and later to breeches and coat), the male gesture evolved into a forward inclination of the upper body — the bow — while the female gesture retained the knee-bend that was more natural in a full skirt. The spelling "curtsy" (or "curtsey") emerged in the 16th century to designate specifically the female gesture, while "courtesy" kept its abstract meaning.
The depth of a curtsy carried precise social meaning. A slight bob sufficed for social equals; a deep curtsy with the knee nearly touching the floor was reserved for royalty. Court etiquette manuals prescribed exact degrees of bending for different ranks. At the British court, the rules persisted into the 20th century:
The curtsy has experienced a complicated relationship with feminism. Critics have argued that the curtsy — a gesture of physical lowering before authority — encodes female subordination in a way that the male bow does not, since a bow lowers only the head while a curtsy lowers the entire body. Defenders note that the curtsy is simply a different physical expression of the same deference shown by the bow, and that its association with grace and elegance gives it positive aesthetic value.
In contemporary practice, the curtsy is most commonly seen in formal royal encounters, classical ballet (where dancers curtsy to acknowledge applause), and certain competitive settings such as debutante balls and beauty pageants. The word's journey from a general term for courtly politeness to a specific gendered gesture illustrates how social practices can split a single word into parallel forms.