adieu

See also: Adieu

English

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

• (General American) IPA^(key): /əˈdju/, /əˈdu/

  • Audio (US):

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  • Audio (US):

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  • Audio (US):

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• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /əˈdjuː/, /əˈdjɜː/

  • Audio (Southern England, with diphthong):

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  • Audio (Southern England, without diphthong):

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• (Canada) IPA^(key): /əˈdjuː/, /əˈdjɜː/, /əˈd(j)ɪu̯/
• Rhymes: -uː

Interjection

adieu

2. 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[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:

     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"

• addio
• adios
• con dios
• con Dios
• God be with you
• good-by
• good-bye
• goodbye
• go with God
• vaya con dios
• vaya con Dios

 

• adjö
• aloha
• arrivederci
• auf Wiedersehen
• au revoir
• bye
• bye-bye
• cheerio
• cheers
• ciao
• farewell
• good day
• sayonara
• shalom
• so long

 

Translations

farewell, goodbye — see goodbye

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

• bid adieu

 

Translations

a farewell

• Afrikaans: totsiens (af)
• Arabic: الوداع
• Dutch: adieu (nl)
• Estonian: jumalaga, hüvasti
• Finnish: hyvästi (fi)
• French: adieu (fr), farewell (fr)
• German: Adieu (de) n
• Greek: αποχαιρετισμός (el) m (apochairetismós)

  Ancient: ἀποχαιρετισμὸς m (apokhairetismòs), ἐξητηριος λόγος (exētērios lógos)

• Hungarian: agyő (hu)
• Norwegian: adjø (no) n, farvel n
• Portuguese: adeus (pt) m, despedida (pt) f
• Russian: проща́ние (ru) n (proščánije)
• Spanish: adiós (es) m
• Swedish: adjö (sv), farväl (sv)

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

Translations to be checked

• Korean: ^{(please verify)} 안녕! (annyeong) (annyeong! (annyeong)), ^{(please verify)} 잘 가(세요) (jal ga(seyo)) (jal ga(seyo) (jal ga(seyo)))

See also

• à deux
• ado

 

Anagrams

• Audie

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 [Term?], from Old French [Term?]. Later reinfluenced by French adieu (“to God”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aːˈdjøː/, (less common) /aː.diˈøː/

• Audio:

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• Hyphenation: adieu
• Rhymes: -øː

Interjection

adieu

1. (Southern) farewell, adieu

   Synonyms: tot ziens, aju, doei, dag, later

Derived terms

• aju

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; Serbo-Croatian ади̏о, adȉo; Slovene adȋjo.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.djø/

• Audio:

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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 adieu ― to 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.

   [to a teacher] 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

• dire adieu

Descendants

• → Alemannic German: àdje (Alsatian)
• → Danish: adjø
• → Dutch: adieu
  • Negerhollands: adjo, adjoe
    • → Virgin Islands Creole: adio
• → English: adieu
• → German: Adieu, tschö
• → Hungarian: agyő
• → Luxembourgish: äddi
• → Norwegian:
  • → Norwegian Bokmål: adjø
  • → Norwegian Nynorsk: adjø
• → Polish: adieu
• → Romanian: adio (both from French adieu and Italian addio)
• → Russian: адьё (adʹjó), адью (adʹju)
• → Swedish: adjö
• → Yiddish: אַדיע (adye)

Noun

adieu m (plural adieux)

1. farewell

   Synonym: au revoir

   Antonym: bonjour

   faire ses adieux à quelqu’un ― to bid farewell to someone

   leurs tendres adieux ― their tender farewells

   des adieux émouvants ― moving farewells

   un mot d’adieu ― a word of farewell

   sans adieu ― without 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 [i.e. church bells ringing] 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 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 d’adieu peut-être.

     I would like a word with you, sir; a word of farewell, perhaps.

Derived terms

• faire ses adieux

See also

• à-Dieu-va, à-Dieu-vat

Further reading

• “adieu”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Occitan

Pronunciation

• Audio (Languedoc):

  (file)

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

• IPA^(key): /aˈdjɛ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛ
• Syllabification: a‧dieu

Interjection

adieu

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

Further reading

• adieu in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• adieu in Polish dictionaries at PWN
• Aleksander Zdanowicz (1861) “adieu”, in Słownik języka polskiego, Wilno 1861
• J. Karłowicz, A. Kryński, W. Niedźwiedzki, editors (1900), “adje, adju”, in Słownik języka polskiego (in Polish), volume 1, Warsaw, page 7