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Where Did the Words “Goodbye” and “So Long” Come From and What Did They Mean Originally?

October 21, 2019 by Karen Hill

The word goodbye is a derivative of the early English greeting “God be with you,” or as it was said then, “God be with ye.”

Over the years its abbreviated written form and pronunciation became “goodbye.”

As for “so long,” it came to Britain with soldiers who had spent time in Arabic-speaking countries, where the perfect expression of goodwill is “salaam.”

The unfamiliar word to the English men sounded like, and then became, “so long.”

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Filed Under: Language

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

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