Greetings and introductions

The fifth entry is adeus, and it is the one word here that an English speaker has already said a few thousand times without knowing it. Adeus is a Deus, to God — what is left of a longer leave-taking, a Deus vos encomendo, I commend you to God, worn down until only the destination survived. English did the same thing to a different formula. « Goodbye » is the remains of God be with ye, already contracted in writing by the sixteenth century, and the good- at the front is not the adjective: it was pulled in afterwards by the pattern of « good morning », which is why the spelling carries an extra o that the etymology never had. Two languages, one idea, built twice, and neither speaker can hear it any more. What differs is what happened next. « Goodbye » stayed the ordinary word for parting; adeus did not. In Portuguese it has kept a weight of finality — the farewell of somebody who may not be back — so two people meeting again on Thursday say até logo or até amanhã instead.