badbye

English

Etymology

From bad +‎ bye, by analogy with goodbye, reanalyzed as good +‎ bye.

Interjection

badbye

1. (colloquial, humorous, childish) Said in reaction to a departure involving painful emotions.
   • 2010, Stephen Dixon, What Is All This?: Uncollected Stories, Fantagraphics Books, →ISBN, page 534:

     Goodbye. / Then I don’t know what’s so good about it. / Then badbye or just bye. / Yes, that’s probably just a goodbye. / Bye, then? / I wish we didn’t have to say bye. / We didn’t say bye. / We said “badbye” and “just bye” and “then bye.”

   • 2019, Ray Robinson, The Mating Habits of Stags, Lightning Books, →ISBN:

     The distant thump of the front door. Gone. She didn’t even go to the window to watch him walk away. / And I cannot let you in. / What kind of a woman falls for a grieving man? / Badbye.

   1. Used to express sadness at the departure of a friend or loved one.
   2. Used to dismiss someone who the speaker is angry with, such that the speaker may be happy to see them leave.

      Synonym: good riddance

      • 1976, Violet Weingarten, Half a Marriage, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN, page 110:

        Once, when she was little, she was angry at Jason because he was going away and she refused to say goodbye to him. Instead she ran to a window and shouted after him, “Badbye, Daddy, badbye!”

Noun

badbye (plural badbyes)

1. The acknowledgement of a departure involving such negative emotions.
   • 2009, Onyeka Nwelue, The Abyssinian Boy, DADA Books, →ISBN, page 112:

     She walked to the railing where airport people, who waited to wave goodbyes (and even badbyes) to their loved (and hated) ones, leaned.

   • 2017, Antoon A. Leenaars, The Psychological Autopsy, Routledge, →ISBN, page 184:

     I remember saying goodbye to all of my friends. But, I was telling lies, it wasn’t a goodbye at all, it was a badbye.

   • 2019, Ray Robinson, The Mating Habits of Stags, Lightning Books, →ISBN:

     Her last words to him: Don’t hurt anyone else. But did she mean: Don’t hurt me. / That wasn’t a goodbye. It was a badbye.