goodbye

Before “goodbye” sounded like a tidy word, it was a small benediction: “God be with ye.” English speakers began squeezing that mouthful down, producing forms such as God b'w'y, God buy you, and Godbwye; the earliest recorded forms belong to the sixteenth century. The “good” is a historical optical illusion: God was confused with the good in good morning and good night, even though god and good are not etymologically related. The middle of the phrase has its own surprise: with originally meant “against” or “opposite,” as in withstand, before Middle English turned it toward companionship. And ye was not faux-medieval shop-sign decoration but the genuine plural “you,” descended from the same ancient pronoun family as Sanskrit yūyám and German ihr. So every time someone says goodbye, a compressed old wish briefly re-expands in the air: may the divine be beside you when our paths separate.