I honestly don’t use the word very often because to me it seems final.
—
“But for long-term departures, more formal ceremony is needed. If the actual word "goodbye" has a sense of finality to it, it's not by accident. It's a contraction of "God be with ye," which conveys a blessing or prayer or hope that the person upon whom it's bestowed will travel safely. It's almost a plea. Today's assorted methods of electronic communication mean that separations are only as permanent as they are allowed to be, but there was a time when departure from loved ones forced you to consider the very real possibility that the parting could be permanent, or very, very, very, very extended. The gravity of this occasion was marked by a ritualized send-off in the form of a party or feast or an observance of some sort. From wakes to wedding receptions to going-away parties, the network must gather to reconcile the interruption to the existing connections. People meet and engage in exercises of remembrance which reinforces the sense that change is impending.”
Source https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/anthropology-in-practice/the-meaning-of-goodbye/
—
It comes down to the situation but the actual route of the word comes from religious use such as “god be with ye” as a blessing of sorts.
Posted using Partiko iOS