goodbye. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

goodbye

SYLLABICATION:	good·bye
PRONUNCIATION:	gd-b
VARIANT FORMS:	or good-bye also good-by
INTERJECTION:	Used to express an acknowledgement of parting.
NOUN:	Inflected forms: pl. good·byes also good-·bys 1. An acknowledgment at parting, especially by saying “goodbye.” 2. An act of parting or leave-taking: many sad goodbyes.
ETYMOLOGY:	Alteration (influenced by good day) of God be with you.
WORD HISTORY:	No doubt more than one reader has wondered exactly how goodbye is derived from the phrase “God be with you.” To understand this, it is helpful to see earlier forms of the expression, such as God be wy you, god b'w'y, godbwye, god buy' ye, and good-b'wy. The first word of the expression is now good and not God, for good replaced God by analogy with such expressions as good day, perhaps after people no longer had a clear idea of the original sense of the expression. A letter of 1573 written by Gabriel Harvey contains the first recorded use of goodbye: “To requite your gallonde [gallon] of godbwyes, I regive you a pottle of howdyes,” recalling another contraction that is still used.


The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.