Editor's Corner

Yesterday I started a discussion of different terms we use to say goodbye. There were so many things to talk about, I had to split it into two days! For fun on day two, here are some slang goodbyes from Phrase Mix:

• Catch you later.
  This is a variation on "See you later" that you might use if you want to seem super-casual. You might imagine a surfer using this phrase.
• Peace!/Peace out.
  "Peace!" as a way to say goodbye comes from hip-hop music and culture. It sounds very casual. "Peace out" is the same but it was popular in the early 1990s. Today it sounds very dated.
• I’m out!
  "I’m out!" is also connected with hip-hop. It’s something that you can say when you’re glad to be leaving. For example, you might say "I’m out!" to your coworkers as you’re leaving your part time job for the day.

And lastly, here’s one that I find interesting because the words “so long” can mean goodbye, but they could also mean a measurement of time or distance. “That movie was so long, I feel asleep before the first half.” Here’s the etymology from Online Etymology Dictionary:

so long (interjection)

parting salutation, 1860, of unknown origin, perhaps from a German idiom (compare German parting salutation adieu so lange, the full sense of which probably is something like "farewell, whilst (we’re apart)"); or perhaps from Hebrew shalom (via Yiddish sholom). Some have noted a similarity to Scandinavian leave-taking phrases, such as Norwegian Adjø så lenge, Farvel så lenge, Mor’n så lenge, literally "bye so long, farewell so long, morning so long;" and Swedish Hej så länge "good-bye for now," with så länge "for now" attested since 1850 according to Swedish sources. Most etymology sources seem to lean toward the German origin. So long (adv.) "for such a long time" is from late Old English.

Earlier guesses that it was a sailors’ corruption of a South Pacific form of Arabic salaam are not now regarded as convincing. "Dictionary of American Slang" also adds to the list of candidates Irish slán "safe," said to be used as a salutation in parting. The phrase seems to have turned up simultaneously in America, Britain, and perhaps Canada, originally among lower classes. First attested use is in title and text of the last poem in Whitman’s "Leaves of Grass" in the 1860 edition.

An unknown sphere, more real than I dream’d, more direct, darts awakening rays about me — So long!
Remember my words — I may again return,
I love you — I depart from materials;
I am as one disembodied, triumphant, dead.

Kara Church

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