Pray vs. Prithee — What's the Difference?

To utter or address a prayer or prayers to a deity or an object of worship, often as an entreaty

Prithee is an archaic English interjection formed from a corruption of the phrase pray thee ([I] ask you [to]), which was initially an exclamation of contempt used to indicate a subject's triviality. The earliest recorded appearance of the word prithee according to the Oxford English Dictionary was in 1577 and the last appearance was in 1875 while it is most commonly found in works from the seventeenth century.

To use prayer to request (that something may happen)

Please (used to convey a polite request)

To say (a prayer or group of prayers)

Used to express a polite request.

To make a devout or earnest request for

(archaic) please.

To utter or say a prayer or prayers to; address by prayer

A corruption of pray thee; as, I prithee; generally used without I.

(Archaic) To ask (someone) imploringly for something; beseech. Used chiefly in the phrase I pray you to introduce a polite or urgent request or question

Used to make a polite or urgent request or question

(religion) To direct words, thoughts, or one's attention to God or any higher being, for the sake of adoration, thanks, petition for help, etc.

To humbly beg a person for aid or their time.

(obsolete) To ask earnestly for; to seek to obtain by supplication; to entreat for.

To wish or hope strongly for a particular outcome.

(obsolete) To implore, to entreat, to request.

Please; used to make a polite request

Alternative form of pray tell

See Pry.

To make request with earnestness or zeal, as for something desired; to make entreaty or supplication; to offer prayer to a deity or divine being as a religious act; specifically, to address the Supreme Being with adoration, confession, supplication, and thanksgiving.

To address earnest request to; to supplicate; to entreat; to implore; to beseech.

To ask earnestly for; to seek to obtain by supplication; to entreat for.

To effect or accomplish by praying; as, to pray a soul out of purgatory.

Address God; say a prayer

Call upon in supplication; entreat;