Adieu
Adieu (also ade, ada, adjö, adje, ädi, adet and similar) is a farewell greeting that is used in France and Switzerland as well as in some regions in southern Germany and Austria. Also Bye has its etymological origin in adieu .
Origin and meaning
The word is made up of the two French words à “bei” and dieu “Gott”, whose roots are in the Latin ad deum “to God”. It means something like "God commanded". Other Romance languages also know it, e.g. B. Spanish ¡Adiós !, here also el adiós "Farewell", Portuguese Adeus! or Italian addio . Grammatically, it's an interjection .
History and dissemination
In German, Adieu was the most common farewell greeting until 1914, but was quite successfully put out of use in the anti-French language propaganda that began at that time ("Away with the French greeting 'Adieu'! We greet 'Auf Wiedersehn' in German!").
The use in the German-speaking area in the form ade developed in South and South-West German is still current. For this reason, it is particularly common in the Alemannic and Swabian dialects. The modified form adet is also common in the Swabian region . In Württemberg the farewell greeting ada or adele is mostly used by older people . In Franconia is ade also established itself as an everyday farewell still in all generations, but is increasingly displaced from northern Germany bye. In the Upper Franconian region in particular, the reduced form adela is often used, as is common there with many words .
In large parts of the German-speaking area apart from the south, variations such as the northwest and north German Tschüss (adjüs) or the Rhenish tschö are more common. The Italian ciao is now mainly used among young people all over Germany . Servus applies in southern Bavaria, Swabia and Austria .
In the German-speaking Switzerland is adieu or adje very common. Both farewell greetings are used when one is by you. (When Duzen is ciao, ciao and younger Bye said.) In French-speaking Switzerland , so the French-speaking western Switzerland, is adieu used not only as a family farewell, but also as a familiar greeting.
Adieu is nowadays often used in Germany in the sense of “never to be seen again” or “goodbye” when one assumes that one will not see the person / thing to be said goodbye or do not want to see them again.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Glossaire des patois de la Suisse romande , Volume I, p. 119 f., Lemma adieu .
