I Just Learned Why We Say 'Goodbye' And It'll Never Hear It The Same Way Again

We’ve written before at HuffPost UK about why we say everything from “o’clock” to “pardon my French.” 

We’ve even explained why “stealing someone’s thunder” and “spilling the beans” have become such common phrases, despite neither meaning relating to either weather or legumes.

But I never suspected anything as common as “goodbye” could have any meaning more complex than, well, “see ya.”

However, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the first known use of the word was in 1571, and it is actually a contraction of four separate words. 

Which are?

The first written version of “goodbye” is found in a letter by English writer and scholar, Gabriel Harvey. 

It reads “To requite your gallonde [gallon] of godbwyes, I regive you a pottle of howdyes.”

A 1634 example read “His courtesie is manifest; for he had rather haue one farewell then 20 Godbwyes.”

If you’ve noticed that those examples have a “w” in front of their “y”s, that’s because it used to be made of four separate words. 

Merriam-Webster lists the etymology of “goodbye” as an “alteration of God be with you.” 

It took until around 1700 for the phrase “bye-bye” to come about, according to Dictionary.com (a 1707 spelling of “Good bye” is one of the first to drop the “w”).

Other, older spellings include “God be wy you, God buoye, good bwi’t’ye, good b’ w’ y.” 

Even today, some people still hyphenate “good-bye.”

We’re not alone

Both the Spanish “adios” and the French “adieu,” which are both used in the same way as “goodbye,” have similarly holy origins.

The Spanish version was previously a Dios seas or a Dios seades, Merriam-Webster says. That meant “may (you) be (commended) to God.” 

Meanwhile, the dictionary says “a deu or a dieu,” meant “to God.”

Who knew there was such celestial power behind the common phrase...