âThey are just inventing some bullshit to say that everything is about God. âGoodbyeâ is clearly just good + bye like in âgood nightâ etc. Clearly the phrase wasnât âGod nightâ beforeâ or smth like that
There wasnât a word in English that was just âbyeâ on its own, thatâs something retroactively gained through simplifying âgoodbyeâ.
The basic evolution was âgod be with youâ -> âgodbwyeâ -> âgoodbyeâ -> âbyeâ. The change from âgodbwyeâ to âgoodbyeâ was because English already used phrases like âgood dayâ and âgood eveningâ, so it got blended to match them over time.
Also, invoking god when saying goodbye to someone was a VERY common thing. Adieu and adios both started out as phrases meaning something similar to âgo to Godâ. You were basically wishing someone well when they left and invoking God to protect them. This wasnât even a purely Christian thing, a bunch of cultures around the world did this. Itâs kinda a fun coincidence.
There wasnât a word in English that was just âbyeâ on its own, thatâs something retroactively gained through simplifying âgoodbyeâ.
Bye is a word independent of goodbye, used for things like a bye in a tournament. Its etymology comes from the word by (as in near or around).
It doesn't really make much sense for that to be the etymology of goodbye, but without additional context you can't just throw it out. English has done a lot weirder things with its language than wishing you a "good [near]" as you're leaving.
That comment really doesnât disprove the theory, at all. Itâs basically just someone saying no one has found the EXACT moment things changed, but thatâs true of basically every evolution of words in a language. Itâs almost always a slow steady shift and you rarely have people recognizing it at the time either. Itâs a bit silly to claim a widely accepted theory is completely inaccurate when the biggest flaw is just that they donât have 100% certainty.
There is FAR more evidence to suggest the âgod be with youâ to âgodbwyeâ to âgoodbyeâ change than anything else. We have records of people saying âgod be with youâ for a long time, we have a few examples of âgodbwyeâ being used in writing (like a 1573 letter), and only after that do we start seeing âgoodbyeâ appear in writing. It also just makes logical sense as so many other cultures repeated similar evolutions, plus we have a few other examples of English mixing up âgoodâ and âGodâ.
Itâs not impossible that the origin was something else, but this is a widely held belief for a reason. Experts in the field are fairly confident this is the transition that happened somewhere around in the late 16th century.
It's the same if you want to ask a question. You ask straight up, you're likely ignored. You offer the wrong answer, a million people rush to correct you.Â
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u/Clean-Application185 1d ago
What was the thought process behind that question.