adieu

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See also: Adieu

English

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Etymology

From Middle English adieu also adew, adewe, adue, from Old French adieu (to God), a shortening of a Dieu vous comant (I commend you to God), from Medieval Latin ad Deum (to God). Doublet of adios.

Pronunciation

Interjection

adieu

  1. Said to wish a final farewell; goodbye.
    • 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :
      BEATRICE. What fire is in mine ears? Can this be true?
      Stand I condemn'd for pride and scorn so much?
      Contempt, farewell! and maiden pride, adieu!
      No glory lives behind the back of such.

Usage notes

Although the above pronunciations are usually used in American and RP English, neither is the standard pronunciation in French. /əˈdjɜː/ is used to approximate the French, while /əˈdju(ː)/ is a spelling pronunciation.

Synonyms

"adieu"

Translations

Noun

adieu (plural adieux or adieus)

  1. A farewell, a goodbye; especially a fond farewell, or a lasting or permanent farewell.
    We bid our final adieus to our family, then boarded the ship, bound for America.
    • 1931, H. P. Lovecraft, chapter 6, in The Whisperer in Darkness:
      As Noyes bade me adieu and rode off northward in his car I began to walk slowly toward the house.
    • 1952 January, Henry Maxwell, “Farewell to the "T14s"”, in Railway Magazine, page 57:
      Yes, the tide will surely turn, and meanwhile may one who is proud to call himself a partisan, invite whomever may feel disposed to bid the "T14s" adieux, to pause before giving them valediction and accord to them the respect that is assuredly their due.
    • 1969, Vladimir Nabokov, Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle:
      At the of his so remote, so near, 1884 summer Van, before leaving Ardis, was to make a visit of adieu to Ada's larvarium.

Usage notes

Particularly used in phrase bid adieu.

Derived terms

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

See also

Anagrams

Catalan

Verb

adieu

  1. only used in us adieu, second-person plural present indicative of adir-se
  2. inflection of adiar:
    1. second-person plural present indicative/subjunctive
    2. second-person plural imperative

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch adiu, from Middle French , from Old French . Later reinfluenced by French adieu (to God).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /aːˈdjøː/, (less common) /aː.diˈøː/
  • Audio:(file)
  • Hyphenation: adieu
  • Rhymes: -øː

Interjection

adieu

  1. (Southern) farewell, adieu
    Synonyms: tot ziens, aju, doei, dag, later

Derived terms

Descendants

  • Negerhollands: adjo, adjoe
    • Virgin Islands Creole: adio

French

Etymology

Shortened form of Old French a Dieu vos comant, from Medieval Latin ad Deum, equivalent to Old French à dieu vous commant (I commend (entrust) you to God). Compare Aragonese, Asturian, Extremaduran, and Spanish adiós; Catalan adeu; Dutch adjuus; English and Occitan adieu; German tschüss; Greek αντίο (antío); Galician and Portuguese adeus; Italian addio; Maltese addiju; Mirandese adius; Romanian adio; Serbo-Croatian ади̏о, adȉo; Slovene adȋjo.

Pronunciation

Interjection

adieu

  1. farewell, adieu
    Synonym: au revoir
    Antonym: bonjour
    Near-synonym: à plus tard
    dire adieu à quelqu’un ou à quelque chose
    to say goodbye to someone or to something
    se dire adieuto say goodbye
    adieu à jamais / adieu pour toujours / adieu pour jamais / adieu à tout jamais
    all equivalent to "goodbye forever"
    Tu peux dire adieu à tout ça.
    You can say goodbye to all this.
    Adieu, monsieur le professeur. On ne vous oubliera jamais.
    Goodbye, sir. We will never forget you.
    Maintenant que j’ai dit adieu à mes rêves de bonheur, je me sens plus heureux.
    Now that I have said goodbye to my dreams of happiness, I feel happier.
  2. (North America) goodbye, see you soon
  3. (Southern France) hello
  4. (Switzerland) hello, goodbye

Derived terms

Descendants

Noun

adieu m (plural adieux)

  1. farewell
    Synonym: au revoir
    Antonym: bonjour
    faire ses adieux à quelqu’unto bid farewell to someone
    leurs tendres adieuxtheir tender farewells
    des adieux émouvantsmoving farewells
    un mot dadieua word of farewell
    sans adieuwithout farewell
    • 1841, Théodore Marie Pavie, Fragments d'un Voyage dans l'Amérique Méridionale en 1833, page 223:
      Aux oreilles du patient résigné ces derniers adieux des églises n’ont sans doute rien de si funèbre, et ils valent mieux que le silence de la foule qui recule sur son passage, mieux surtout que les anathèmes ou les rires d’un peuple méchant ; []
      To the ears of the condemned man resigned to his fate, this final farewell from the churches undoubtedly has nothing so funereal about it, and it is better than the silence of the crowd which moves back as he passes, and especially better than the opprobrium or the laughter of a cruel public;
    • 1853, Jean-Baptiste Henri-Dominique Lacordaire, Discours sur le droit et le devoir de la propriété, etc., page 7:
      Ne vous étonnez donc pas si je vous parle d’elle au moment de nos adieux : []
      Do not be surprised, therefore, if I talk to you about it when we say goodbye:
    • 1863, Arsène Houssaye, Les filles d'Ève, page 179:
      J’ai un mot à vous dire, monsieur, un mot dadieu peut-être.
      I would like a word with you, sir; a word of farewell, perhaps.

Derived terms

See also

Further reading

Occitan

Pronunciation

Interjection

adieu

  1. hello
  2. goodbye

Polish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French adieu. First attested in the 19th century. Doublet of adio and adios.

Pronunciation

Interjection

adieu

  1. (literary) adieu (said to wish a final farewell; goodbye)

References

  1. ^ Mirosław Bańko, Lidia Wiśniakowska (2021) “adieu”, in Wielki słownik wyrazów obcych, →ISBN
  2. ^ Samuel Bogumił Linde (1807–1814) “adieu”, in Słownik języka polskiego

Further reading