Today, I came across two tags: courtesy and etiquette. They've both been used for a decent number of questions, sometimes on the same one. Looking at the lists, it seems like the usage for both is similar; I don't see many questions using one that couldn't use the other instead.
Can we either
We don't need to synonymize them, because etiquette and courtesy have totally different meaning.
As per Oxford definition for etiquette,
The customary code of polite behaviour in society or among members of a particular profession or group.
and for courtesy,
The showing of politeness in one's attitude and behaviour towards others.
Etiquette is about the rules that make you behave in a certain way, which is considered polite. While Courtesy is about your behavior that shows politeness and may benefit others.
In my opinion, we should consider these tags separate and must have a tag wiki to avoid confusion.
Both tags are being used in similar ways as politeness. etiquette and courtesy are both used almost exclusively for questions about how to be polite.
If you look at the definitions of courtesy and etiquette, you'll see that this makes sense. Etiquette is a set of (unwritten) rules about how to be polite. Courtesy is a synonym of politeness.
Tags have one purpose: to help people find questions to answer. I find it hard to believe that someone who knows about etiquette (the rules for how to be polite) wouldn't also be interested in questions about how to be polite, which can be answered using etiquette.
Both tags should be synonyms of politeness.
I mean, if you want, you can try changing the tag descriptions. But most people don't really read these. And most people aren't tuned in to the exact dictionary definitions of politeness, etiquette, and courtesy. So again, you can try, but I doubt you'll have much luck.
