Do you say goodbye?

Did you know that "good-bye" is a contraction of "God be with you" ???

Came across this while listening to a linguist the other day, on the Australian ABC.

Found it mentioned in a few dictionaries which talk about the word history.
http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/go/good-bye.html

I don't say good bye....mainly because it's boring. I usually say "See ya later" or variations there of, or "I bid you adeu," or other foriegn farewells, or even farewell.

Something I do go out of my way to avoid (and it's cost me a few relationships) is I refuse to buy diamonds. I know too well what's done in the process of mining diamonds....mainly the people that do the mining

I think you'd go mad if you tried to avoided any words or expressions in English that have roots in something religious.

And MisterChristopher, luckily my wife feels the same way about diamonds. I honestly wasn't informed enough to have a problem with diamonds, but she opened my eyes and we have a diamond-free marriage. Just one more way that I'm a lucky guy.

The language is chock-full of words and phrases that are connected to some religion or another. Myself, I don't police my language so much. Maybe I should, but I just *love* using all the words, and none of the alternatives suffice.

Besides, muttering "Jesus Christ" when I encounter something particularly stupid is reflex but also commentary, since most stupid things seem to be done by Christians lately.

jgrow2 wrote:The language is chock-full of words and phrases that are connected to some religion or another. Myself, I don't police my language so much. Maybe I should, but I just *love* using all the words, and none of the alternatives suffice.

Besides, muttering "Jesus Christ" when I encounter something particularly stupid is reflex but also commentary, since most stupid things seem to be done by Christians lately.

Word. Stupid and/or frustrating situations tend to elicit a "Jesus Christ" or a "goddammit" (or a variation of one or the other). It's instinctive. And I don't really think it matters too much.

As for "good-bye", it's just not a phrase I use that often. "Later", "See ya", "take it easy", "take care", etc etc are phrases I use more frequently.

Fletch wrote:I think you'd go mad if you tried to avoided any words or expressions in English that have roots in something religious.

Agreed. We've got hermetic (Hermes), sisyphean (Sisyphus), cereal (Ceres), jovial (Jupiter), martial (Mars)... not to mention the names of the months, days, and planets. So many words have roots in religion, it'd be impossible to avoid them all. Nor would I want to. Sisyphean is too much fun to say.

When a Ray Comfort type tries to prove that saying "goodbye" means you are hoping for God's blessing on someone it's good to know that, by that logic, eating cereal means you want Ceres to bless your crops, learning a martial art means you worship Mars, and putting helium in balloons for your kid's birthday is really a tribute to Helios.

People of my generation has a habit of saying something like "Peace" or "Take it easy," or "pce" if we're on our phones (which seems like a new sensory organ nowadays )

But seriously, I'd advocate "Peace," although the crazy fundies might relate this to the "Peace be with you" saying, which Jesus didn't really coin anyways. But you know how it goes: If Jesus said it, clearly it was the first time that this was said and mattered. Hell, the Golden Rule is his. Nevermind Buddha and Confucius who said the same thing 5-6 centuries earlier.

instead of goodbye i say CIAO because if an Italian chick can't say ciao, then nobody can.

I'm entertained by etymologies of expressions...
http://www.snopes.com/language/notthink/deserts.asp
http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/more/489/

Nicholas wrote:
Word. Stupid and/or frustrating situations tend to elicit a "Jesus Christ" or a "goddammit" (or a variation of one or the other). It's instinctive. And I don't really think it matters too much.

I don't think this matters at all. I see these more as blasphemy. After years of having to watch what I say, these days I love to let rip with a good 'Jeeeeesus!' from time to time. Often looking up, goading the big invisible, non-existant deity to strike me down. I'm still here though and there's no sign of him, goddammit!