7 ms·

Offtopic: 'ciao' doesn't mean only 'goodbye' as the author seems to imply given the title. It means both 'hello' or 'goodbye'. It is similar to the Hawaiian 'al

by casta 9y ago

Offtopic: 'ciao' doesn't mean only 'goodbye' as the author seems to imply given the title. It means both 'hello' or 'goodbye'. It is similar to the Hawaiian 'aloha' when used as a greeting.

ecesena 9y ago
I'm Italian and agree with you. This said, I'm reasonably sure that in countries like Brazil ciao is only used as good bye, so maybe this explains the confusion. FWIW, I've also saw it written as "chao", which made me rofl.
- kmundnic 9y ago
  "Chao" is used in some spanish-speaking countries for bye. So technically it is not misspelled :-)
- schoen 9y ago
  Brazilians spell it "tchau" (due to ch representing /ʃ/ rather than /tʃ/ in Portuguese -- like German sch for /ʃ/ and tsch for /tʃ/).
  - Sylos 9y ago
    Funnily enough, in German we do sometimes spell it "Tschau".
  - pjmlp 9y ago
    Like any other Portuguese speaking country, it is not Brazilian specific. :)
- Anthony-G 9y ago
  The word has been incorporated into other European languages with spellings that make sense for that language. Other commentators have mentioned the Portuguese, Spanish and German forms. To add to those, I've come across "Čau" in a number of Slavic languages.
- pdimitar 9y ago
  "chao" / "chau" exclusively means "bye" in most of Eastern Europe.