phatic

English

From Ancient Greek φατός (phatós, “spoken”), from φημί (phēmí, “I say”)

phatic (comparative more phatic, superlative most phatic)

(linguistics) Pertaining to words used to convey any kind of social relationship e.g polite mood, rather than meaning; for example, "How are you?" is often not a literal question but is said only as a greeting. (Similarly, a response such as "Fine" is often not an accurate answer, but merely an acknowledgement of the greeting.)
- 1978, Anthony Burgess, 1985:
  Generally speaking, statements in WE are expected to be of a tautologous nature, thus fulfilling the essential phatic nature of speech.
- 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage 2007, p. 467:
  Dispensing with phatic chitchat, he began straightaway to tell the story of his “people.”

more polite than meaningful