Wiktionary

adieu

See also: Adieu

English

edit
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Etymology

edit

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

edit

Interjection

edit

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.
    • 2022, “Untold story of Odias who conquered Land of Gold way before Cholas”, in OrrisaPost‎[1]:
      The sails of fat-bellied ships go upward and flap signalling that time has come to bid adieu to the voyagers.
    • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:adieu.

Usage notes

edit

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

edit
"adieu"

Translations

edit

Noun

edit

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.
    • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:adieu.

Usage notes

edit

Particularly used in phrase bid adieu.

Derived terms

edit

Translations

edit
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

See also

edit

Anagrams

edit

Catalan

edit

Verb

edit

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

edit

Etymology

edit

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

Pronunciation

edit
  • IPA(key): /aːˈdjøː/, (less common) /aː.diˈøː/
  • Audio:(file)
  • Hyphenation: adieu
  • Rhymes: -øː

Interjection

edit

adieu

  1. (Southern) farewell, adieu
    Synonyms: tot ziens, aju, doei, dag, later

Derived terms

edit

Descendants

edit
  • Negerhollands: adjo, adjoe
    • → Virgin Islands Creole: adio

French

edit

Etymology

edit

    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 ajuus; 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

    edit

    Interjection

    edit

    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. (Meridional) hello
    4. (Switzerland) hello, goodbye

    Derived terms

    edit

    Descendants

    edit

    Noun

    edit

    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

    edit

    See also

    edit

    Further reading

    edit

    Hungarian

    edit

    Alternative forms

    edit

    Etymology

    edit

    Unadapted borrowing from French adieu.

    Pronunciation

    edit
    • IPA(key): [ˈɒɟøː], [ˈaːɟøː]
    • Rhymes: -ɟøː
    • Hyphenation: adieu
    • Syllabification: a‧dieu

    Interjection

    edit

    adieu

    1. (now often humorous) adieu, goodbye
      Synonym: isten veled

    Further reading

    edit
    • adieu and (with subscription) adieu  in Ferenc Pusztai, editor, Magyar értelmező kéziszótár [A Concise Explanatory Dictionary of Hungarian] (ÉKsz.2), 2nd, expanded and revised edition, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2003 (online searchable version under development).
    • adieu in Nóra Ittzés, editor, A magyar nyelv nagyszótára [A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (Nszt.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2006–2031 (work in progress; published a–ez as of 2026).

    Occitan

    edit

    Pronunciation

    edit

    Interjection

    edit

    adieu

    1. hello
    2. goodbye

    Polish

    edit

    Etymology

    edit
    Etymology tree
    Proto-Indo-European *h₂éd
    Proto-Italic *ad
    Medieval Latin ad
    Proto-Indo-European *dyew-
    Proto-Indo-European *-ós
    Proto-Indo-European *deywós
    Proto-Italic *deiwos
    Old Latin deivosder.
    Latin deus
    Medieval Latin Deum
    Medieval Latin ad Deumder.
    Old French a Dieu vos comant
    French adieuubor.
    Polish adieu

      Unadapted borrowing from French adieu.[1] First attested in the 19th century.[2] Doublet of adio and adios. Compare Kashubian adjé and Slovincian adjé.

      Pronunciation

      edit
      • IPA(key): /aˈdjɛ/
      • Audio:(file)
      • Rhymes: -ɛ
      • Syllabification: a‧dieu

      Interjection

      edit

      adieu

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

      References

      edit
      1. ^ Mirosław Bańko; Lidia Wiśniakowska (2021), “adieu”, in Wielki słownik wyrazów obcych, →ISBN
      2. ^ Samuel Bogumił Linde (1807–1814), “adieu”, in Słownik języka polskiego

      Further reading

      edit
      Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=adieu&oldid=90771349"