No, this isn't my last post ;-) I recently had a discussion with a dear friend of mine about saying goodbye when someone leaves or even when ending a phone call. Having not too long ago had a conversation with my family about using the "F" word, I remember telling them that words only have the power we give them. So, I wondered about the word goodbye and what it originally meant compared to how we perceive its meaning today.
In Spanish class I recall discovering that "adios" means literally "to God". That prompted me to look up the literal translation of a French farewell word...adieu. It was exactly as I suspected "to God". When I looked up the entomology of goodbye I found that is was originally "God be with ye". So if we contract it by taking out letters between the b and the y we get God b'ye. And...our word good was derived from God so there ya' have it. Goodbye literally means "God be with you", not only in English but Spanish, French and I would suspect many other languages. As a matter of fact even the word "farewell" leaves us departing with good tidings.
So, 'til next time...God be with you!
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
