good offices

English

Etymology

To clarify the intended sense of office (“kindness, service”) and to distinguish from antonyms such as ill offices.

Noun

good offices pl (normally plural, singular good office)

1. The beneficial services and acts of a third party, particularly mediation between two parties in a dispute.
   • 1964, Te-kong Tong, “The Marshall Mission and Its Failure”, in United States Diplomacy in China, 1844-60‎^[1], Seattle: University of Washington Press, →LCCN, →OCLC, pages 130–131:

     Marshall’s concern over Russia was to prove itself not without foundation. The Russians were already exploring areas along the Amur River, and only seven years after Marshall’s warning, Russia acquired an important tract of land between the Ussuri and the sea (including the city of Hai-ts’an-wei^{[sic – meaning Hai-shen-wei]}, later changed to Vladivostok) as a reward for her good offices during the Anglo-French Chinese war of 1858-60.

Synonyms

• office, kindness, service

Antonyms

• ill offices, evil offices

Translations

good offices

• Dutch: invloed (nl) m, goede diensten (m pl, conciliatory mediation)
• Finnish: apu (fi), avunanto (fi)
• French: bon office m (service rendered), bons offices m pl (concilatory mediation)
• Ido: bonfaco (io)
• Korean: 친절 (ko) (chinjeol), 돌봄 (ko) (dolbom)
• Latvian: pakalpojums m
• Portuguese: mediação (pt) f
• Romanian: bune oficii (ro) f pl
• Russian: услу́га (ru) f (uslúga), по́мощь (ru) f (pómoščʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: писарница f, управа f

  Roman: pisarnica (sh) f, uprava (sh) f