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CIAO (chow)
Used
to express greeting or farewell
Common
clues: “Later!”; “See ya!”; “Ta-ta!”;
“Bye”; "So long"; Italian farewell;
Informal goodbye; “Arrivederci”
Crossword
puzzle frequency:
6 times a year
Frequency
in English language:
48263 / 86800
Video:
Ciao
Italy
The
word ciao (pronounced somewhat like chow, and occasionally
misspelled as such) is an informal verbal salutation or greeting,
meaning "goodbye" or (more rarely) "hello".
Originally
from the Venetian language, it was adopted by Italian and
eventually entered the vocabulary of English and of many other
languages around the world. Presently, the word is mostly used as
"goodbye" in English, but in other languages it may
mean "hello", "goodbye", or both.
Rick
and Ilsa say goodbye
The
word, like its standard Italian cognate schiavo, literally means
"slave," in the sense of "I am your slave."
This greeting is analogous to the Latin Servus which is still
current in Hungary, Austria, and Bavaria.
The
word s-ciào is still used in Venetian as an exclamation of
resignation in unavoidable situations.
The
Venetian greeting, shortened to ciào, soon lost all its
servile connotations, and came to be used as an informal
salutation by speakers of all classes. It was adopted by the
Italian language, with the spelling ciao, presumably during the
golden days of the Venetian Republic. It has since spread to many
countries in Europe, along with other items of the Italian
culture. In the late 19th and early 20th century, the salute
spread to the Americas—especially Chile, Brazil, and
Argentina—largely by way of Italian immigrants. Ernest
Hemingway is credited with bringing the word into the English
language.
This
article is licensed under the GNU
Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Wikipedia
article "Ciao".
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