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Comment by dredmorbius | Hacker News Reader

Interesting, etymologically.

"Good bye" is a contraction of "God be with ye (you)", which isn't quite so abrupt. "Au revoir", literally, "until (we) see again".

Similar to "Hasta manyana" (until later), or "bis später" (same), Spanish and German, or "zài jiàn" ("see (you) again", Mandarin Chinese) . Farewells (literally, "fare thee well", be well) in many languages share similar attributes.

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Mort is Death in french. Mort says goodbye in english, while death prefers goodbye in french.

In contrast to "au revoir", the French expression for a final parting is "adieu". This is a shortening of of "a Dieu vous comant" ("I commend you to God"). In a sense, this is the opposite of "goodbye", at least in the implied direction of divine intercession.

My favorite is Japanese sayoonara: "if it must be that way"

Sayounara is more used for a very long, possibly indefinite goodbye, which accounts for the more wistful translation (similar to "farewell"). The more commonly used form is some form of mata, which means 'again', more in line with the parent's examples.

So perhaps the French translation of "good bye" which more closely matches the idiom's etymology is "adieu".

Spanish as well, I believe "via con dios": go with God.

Never mind "bis später", what about "auf wiedersehen"... and "à bientôt" - see you soon.

Strangely, I don't really say "goodbye" all that often - it's either "later" or "'til next time.".

I think "auf wiedersehen" is the same as au revoir, no? re-voir is to "re-see". I'm familiar with this contraction from Italian arrivederci - a (to/towards) ri- (again) veder (to see) ci (we) - "till we see eachother again".

Yeah, that was my point!

The Dutch 'tot ziens' is similar, and 'see you [soon]' is another common English expression.

Right. I wasn't necessarily contrasting the primary parting phrases in various languages, but showing the similarities of many with equivalent varients in others.

In Welsh we say "hwyl" which literally translates to "fun". We never say "goodbye", we just wish fun on people until we see them again.

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