The Etymology of Adieu
Adieu is a contraction of the Old French phrase a Dieu vous commant — I commend you to God — a parting blessing common in 12th-century courtly speech. Behind it stands Latin ad Deum, to God. The same religious farewell crystallised independently in Spanish (adiós), Italian (addio), and Portuguese (adeus), and English goodbye is a worn-down God be with ye on the same model — the parting was always a small prayer. English adopted adieu around 1380 directly from Old French, keeping the French spelling and a pronunciation closer to the donor than to English habits. By Shakespeare’s time it carried a literary, often final or solemn weight: not a casual see-you-tomorrow but a farewell that suggested distance, perhaps forever. That tone has held — bid adieu to youth, adieu mon amour — adieu rarely belongs to ordinary partings. Modern French still uses it for permanent goodbyes, while au revoir covers everyday ones.