The origin of Goodbye 24/10/2022

History of the English language 2

Sara García García

The first thing we must know is that languages are constantly changing. These languages,
which are now in use, have experienced various modifications. The English language is
certainly no different and has changed in many fields (for example, in the employment
and apparition of words). In this case, we find the usage of the word goodbye.
The first recorded utilization of the word goodbye appears in a letter by Gabriel Harvey
in 1575. The definition that the OED provides is the following: a farewell gesture or
action, such as a wave, a smile, a kiss, etc.
But whence did this term originate? The conversational element goodbye comes from the
phrase God be with you. The phrase was employed as a blessing or as a polite way to end
a conversation.
We must be aware that the discourse we speak has changed over the years. When two
people said goodbye, they did not know if they would ever see each other again, and due
to the tremendous religiosity of that time, the most used phrase was God be with you; this
idea of blessing lost its strength over the years and became a mere greeting.
All this information is helpful, but why do we now use goodbye? First of all, it is much
easier, quicker and more convenient for speakers of a language to use shorter words; this
may be the case for goodbye.
Secondly, we should mention the influence of the interlocutions goodnight or good
morning. Thanks to these elements of discourse or phrases, the term was shortened; they
also affected the change in the spelling from the word God to the word good. Although
this transformation may also be due to the earlier-mentioned loss of the religious sense of
the word.
It is worth mentioning that the term did not emerge directly, according to what the Oxford
English Dictionary shows us, it went through many variations (e.g., godbu'y, the 1500s–
1600s godbuy, 1500s–1600s godbu'ye, 1600s godbo'y, 1600s god b'oy you, 1600s
godb'uy, 1600s god, buy, 1600s godbuy'ye, 1600s god buy ye).

All the information that has just been reported can be easily deduced and learned through
historical pragmatics (The science of how the environment influences meaning is known
as pragmatics) that helps us to understand the process of using a certain discourse element.
The science of how the environment influences meaning is known as pragmatics.
Hundreds of years from now, historians will be able or will try to unravel the origin of
the new word to replace goodbye. We see it as a slow-moving process, however, for
example, there are speakers of English who no longer use goodbye but only bye.
Languages are living things that change and evolve with societies. Because of this, we
now realise and understand why one word "replaced" the other, although not in all
contexts. Even though right now and concerning the pragmatic paradigm, the
interlocution goodbye, cannot be used with a religious motive. On the other side the
phrase God be with you re-emerged as a simple blessing.