ciao

ciao  (chou)

interj.

Used to express greeting or farewell.

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[Italian, from dialectal ciau, alteration of Italian (sono vostro) schiavo, (I am your) servant, from Medieval Latin sclavus, slave, servant; see slave.]

Word History: Ciao first appears in English in 1929 in Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, which is set in northeast Italy during World War I. It is likely that this is where Hemingway learned the word, for ciau in Venetian dialect means "servant, slave," and, as a casual greeting, "I am your servant." Ciau corresponds to standard Italian schiavo; both words come from Medieval Latin sclavus, "slave." A similar development took place with servus, the Classical Latin word for "slave," in southern Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Poland, where servus is used as a casual greeting like ciao. At the opposite end of the world, in Southeast Asia, one even sees words meaning "slave" or "your slave" that have developed into pronouns of the first person, again to indicate respect and humility.

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

ciao - an acknowledgment that can be used to say hello or goodbye (aloha is Hawaiian and ciao is Italian) aloha acknowledgement, acknowledgment - a statement acknowledging something or someone; "she must have seen him but she gave no sign of acknowledgment"; "the preface contained an acknowledgment of those who had helped her" Italia, Italian Republic, Italy - a republic in southern Europe on the Italian Peninsula; was the core of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire between the 4th century BC and the 5th century AD