On the semantics of parting phrases

[pne]

Sagen eigentlich Atheisten auch „tschüs“ (< ad Deus)?

Do atheists also say “good-bye” (“God be with you”)?

Les athées disent-ils aussi « adieu » (« à Dieu »)?

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I’m guessing that the semantics have bleached so much that most people don’t realise the origin and simply use them as neutral parting phrases; probably much more so in English and German than in the Romance languages, where the pronunciation has also changed to obscure the origin (especially in German, where the phrase is based on Romance, rather than native, roots).

I’m also reminded about my post on using “dial (a number)” with dial-less phones as well as “drehen” (literally, “turn”) for the process of shooting a film (which often does not involve literal film any more, either).

Comments

[pseudomonas]

I say "goodbye", but then I also use less worn-down phrases "God knows", "oh my God", sometimes "God forbid".

[pne]

What about "thank God"?

That was something that crossed my mind later, particularly in German ("Gott sei Dank / gottseidank"). In English, I'd probably translate it as the minced version "thank goodness", which may be more common than the explicit phrase.

[pseudomonas]

I use both versions, depending on how much I'm thinking about it.

[yvi]

Yep, we do, and I never actually thought about it having religious connotations. Wouldn't really matter anyway, as I also say "Oh mein Gott". It's cultural and something I'd need to care more about to change.

[steorra]

I didn't know that was the etymology of tschüs. Interesting that it's the only one of the three here that comes from a borrowed phrase rather than a native one.

[pne]

Earlier forms included "atschüs, adjüs" which is closer to the Romance origin. (I'm not sure which Romance language it was taken from, but you can see the resemblance to, say, Spanish "adiós".)