"Can I borrow a tissue?"

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No you can have one. Absolutely do not return it. And don't ask if you can borrow one.

I guess it just sounds more polite to ask if you can borrow a tissue. But it would really be more polite if you asked, "May have a tissue, please?"

"May I borrow a Tissue?"



"Why, certainly, but this is a P4 tissue culture lab, so you must be adequately suited and decontaminated, and you may not return it."

(edit in: best pic I could scrounge off the net. Not the real McCoy.)

When I was a kid we usually called a tissue a Kleenex, even if it wasn't really the brand name Kleenex, due to it being a generic trademark, like Jell-O or Velcro.

Well. They don't have to return the same tissue, do they?

If they ask "Can I borrow 2$?" you don't expect them to return the exact same 2$ you lent them but any 2$ they have on them when you ask them for the money in the future, even if it happens to be a 2x 1$.

By asking "Can I borrow a tissue?" they make a promise they will give you a tissue or an equivalent of it (a piece of toilet paper?) when you ask them for one sometime in the future. Assuming you remember.

Probably harkens back to the time when tissues were multi-use.

When I used to work, I always had a box of tissues on my desk. A guy who sat next to me started to ask to borrow one at lunch time... so he could use it as a napkin. After he did this for about five days I said:
"There are 100 tissues in a box. After 100 working days you will have consumed an entire box, which I will have paid for. So buy your own ******* box."
He seemed rather displeased at this, but problem solved.

People used handkerchiefs before tissues & kleenex were around & they might would want those back because they were more expensive & could be washed. Since tissues & kleenex kind of fill the same purpose as handkerchiefs the phrase or other phrases might of transferred over to them. This is all speculation of coarse.

I once read that one way women used to get the attention of a man they liked in the old days was to "accidentally" drop their handkerchief while walking past him. If he was a gentleman, he would pick it up and hand it back to her.

But since since most people use disposable tissues these days, I don't believe most people are going to even even think of picking it up, especially if it's been used.

I'd tell the person, "You can't borrow a tissue, but you can have one."

I have a book of Tundra comic strips that was a gift from my uncle. The strips are mainly about the humorous side of living in Alaska. In one comic a character asks the cartoonist, "Hey Chad, mind if I borrow your box of tissues? I need to blow my nose." Chad hands him the box and says "Sure help yourself". The character then blows his nose *into* the whole box of tissues with loud *SKLERRRK!* sound, and then says "thanks" as he tosses the box back at Chad, who is disgusted and spills his coffee.