Hi, everyone.

I understand for the most part the many ways よろしくおねがいします can be used and the different meanings and nuances that it can carry, but I was wondering if anyone knew just exactly what it means literally. Specifically, how does the よろしく part relate to the おねがいします part?

When I say it, am I saying "I request (this) in a よろしく manner," or am I saying "I request (that this is done) in a よろしく manner"? Or something else entirely?

Put another way, does the よろしく part relate to the speaker or the listener?

Just out of interest. Does anyone know? Thanks.

I would say it's "Please do it よろしく", like in... よろしくようにください.

So yeah, I believe it refers to the listener, but I'm not sure at all.

It basically means "I request good relations." More simply, "Please treat me well [and I'll treat you well]." So it's equally appropriate when you first meet someone, or when you (for example) start a project with someone you already know.

Both the subject and a verb are missing. Literally you could say it's "I humbly request of you that [it] be [done] very well." The subject, [it], usually has something to do with your connection with the person you're talking to, hence why I think of it as 'relations.'

That's what I feel when people say it to me anyway, and it seems to work for all the thousands of times people have done so.

I never thought of the grammatical ambiguity before, but etymologically よろしい doesn't mean "good" so much as it means "not bad". As such it only makes sense if it applies to the omitted verb, not to the onegai shimasu.

ex: Please (treat) me somewhat well. (It would be presumptuous to ask for royal treatment however)

*ex: I'm asking you not-badly to <blank> me. (makes no sense - you'd want to maximize politeness, not qualify it. Politeness reduction would be more naturally achieved by dropping the お〜します and just directly using 願います anyways)

Even if よろしい was a perfect synonym of よい, it would mean something more like "I ask frequently for <omitted>, not that you are asking in a よい manner.

For a parallel construction: "優しくお願いします（ヤン♡)" is the speaker asking you to (do it) gently, not gently asking for you to (do it).

Thanks, guys. This has been helpful.

PS: I should have ended my first post with よろしくおねがいします. :)