ciao

See also: čiao and ĉiao

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

substrateder.?

Proto-Indo-European *ḱlewH-der.?

Proto-Slavic *slov-

Proto-Slavic *-ǫta

Proto-Slavic *Slov-?

Proto-Balto-Slavic *-ēnas

Proto-Indo-European *-nós

Proto-Indo-European *-iHnos

Proto-Slavic *-inъ

Proto-Slavic *-ěninъ

Proto-Slavic *slověninъder.

Ancient Greek Σκλαβηνός (Sklabēnós)der.

Medieval Greek Σκλᾰ́βος (Sklắbos)bor.

Late Latin Sclavus

Medieval Latin sclavus

Venetan s-ciao, sciavobor.

Italian ciaobor.

English ciao

Borrowed from Italian ciao (“hello, goodbye”), from Venetan ciao (“hello, goodbye, your (humble) servant”), from Venetan s-ciao / s-ciavo (“servant, slave”), from Medieval Latin sclavus (“Slav, slave”), related also to Italian schiavo, English Slav, slave and Old Venetan S-ciavón (“Slav”), from Latin Sclavus, ultimately from Proto-Slavic *slověninъ. Not related to Vietnamese chào (“hello, goodbye”). Doublet of Slav and slave.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t͡ʃaʊ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aʊ
• Homophone: chow

Interjection

ciao

1. Hello, hi.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:hello

2. Bye, goodbye.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:goodbye

Derived terms

• ciao bella

Translations

hello — see hello

goodbye — see goodbye

transliteration of the Italian greeting or farewell

• Arabic: تْشَاو (tšāw)
• Bulgarian: ча́о (čáo)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: ciallo

• Esperanto: ĉaŭ (eo)
• Estonian: tšau, tsau (et), tsauka, tsauki
• French: tchao (fr)
• Galician: chau m
• Georgian: ჩაო (čao)
• German: tschau (de)
• Hebrew: צַ׳אוּ (tshau)
• Hungarian: csaó (hu)
• Japanese: チャオ (ja) (chao)
• Portuguese: tchau (pt)
• Russian: ча́о (ru) (čáo)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ћао

  Latin: ćao

• Spanish: chao (es)
• Ukrainian: ча́о (čáo)

Noun

ciao (plural ciaos)

1. A greeting or farewell using the word "ciao".
   • 2010, Robert V. Camuto, Palmento: A Sicilian Wine Odyssey, page 16:

     […] he excused himself, disappearing in a cloud of ciaos and operatic Italian.

   • 2007, Darwin Porter, Danforth Prince, Bahamas For Dummies, page 196:

     You hear more ciaos than hellos. Guests play bocce ball on the beach and dine on Italian and some Bahamian cuisine. Because of its strong Continental overlay, the cuisine is better here than at your typical Grand Bahama hotel.

Usage notes

In UK and in US usage, ciao is considered pretentious by some.

Further reading

• ciao on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Coia, ICAO

Bavarian

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian ciao (“hello, goodbye”).

Interjection

ciao

1. (Sappada) hello, hi, ciao

References

• Umberto Patuzzi, ed., (2013) Ünsarne Börtar, Luserna: Comitato unitario delle linguistiche storiche germaniche in Italia / Einheitskomitee der historischen deutschen Sprachinseln in Italien.

French

Alternative forms

• tchao (post-1990 spelling)

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian ciao (“hello, goodbye”), from Venetan ciao (“hello, goodbye; your (humble) servant”), from Venetan s-ciao (“servant, slave”) or s-ciavo (“servant, slave”), from Medieval Latin sclavus (“Slav, slave”), related also to Italian schiavo, English Slav, slave and Old Venetan S-ciavón (“Slav”), from Latin Sclavonia (“Slavonia”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tʃa.o/, /tʃaw/

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

Interjection

ciao

1. ciao

   Synonyms: adieu, au revoir, salut, tschüs

Further reading

• “ciao”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

German

Alternative forms

• tschau

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian ciao from Venetan ciao, ultimately from Latin sclavus. Doublet of Sklave and Slawe.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [t͡ʃaʊ̯]

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

Interjection

ciao

1. ciao

Further reading

• “ciao” in Duden online
• “ciao”, in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache‎^[1] (in German)

Interlingua

Etymology

From Italian ciao (“hello, goodbye”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃao/

Interjection

ciao

1. ciao

Synonyms

• adeo

Italian

Etymology

Etymology tree

substrateder.?

Proto-Indo-European *ḱlewH-der.?

Proto-Slavic *slov-

Proto-Slavic *-ǫta

Proto-Slavic *Slov-?

Proto-Balto-Slavic *-ēnas

Proto-Indo-European *-nós

Proto-Indo-European *-iHnos

Proto-Slavic *-inъ

Proto-Slavic *-ěninъ

Proto-Slavic *slověninъder.

Ancient Greek Σκλαβηνός (Sklabēnós)der.

Medieval Greek Σκλᾰ́βος (Sklắbos)bor.

Late Latin Sclavus

Medieval Latin sclavus

Venetan s-ciao, sciavobor.

Italian ciao

Borrowed from Venetan s-ciao, sciavo (“slave”) (in particular the expression s-ciao vostro (literally “(I am) your slave”), in essence meaning "I am at your service", or "your humble servant"), from Medieval Latin sclavus (“slave”) (whence also standard Italian schiavo); in the Venetan language originally pronounced /stʃaʊ/. Development and use is similar to the Southern German and Central European greeting of servus and Swedish tjena.

False cognate of Vietnamese chào, which also means both "hello" and "goodbye".

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃa.o/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ao
• Hyphenation: cià‧o

Interjection

ciao

1. hello!

   Synonyms: salve (formal), buongiorno

2. goodbye!

   Synonyms: arrivederla (formal), arrivederci, ci vediamo (colloquial)

   • Early 1940s, written by an unknown Italian partisan, Bella Ciao (Goodbye, beautiful!):

     È questo il fiore del partigiano,
     o bella, ciao! bella, ciao! bella, ciao, ciao, ciao!
     È questo il fiore del partigiano,
     morto per la libertà!

     This is the flower of the partisan,
     Oh beautiful, goodbye! Beautiful, goodbye! Beautiful, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye!
     This is the flower of the partisan,
     Who died for freedom!

Derived terms

• ciao ciao

Descendants

Unsorted borrowings:

• → Arabic: تْشَاو (tšāw)
• → Alemannic German: tschau
• → Bavarian: ciao
• → Bulgarian: ча́о (čáo)
• → Chinese: ciallo
• → Czech: čau
• → Dutch: ciao, tjo
• → English: ciao
• → Esperanto: ĉaŭ
• → Estonian: tsau
• → Finnish: tsau, tsaukki
• → French: ciao, tchao
• → Galician: chau
• → Georgian: ჩაო (čao)
• → German: tschau, ciao
• → Hebrew: צַ׳אוּ
• → Hungarian: csaó, csá
• → Ido: chao
• → Interlingua: ciao
• → Japanese: チャオ (chao)
• → Latvian: čau
• → Lithuanian: čiau
• → Macedonian: чао (čao)
• → Maltese: ċaw
• → Norwegian Bokmål: ciao
• → Norwegian Nynorsk: ciao
• → Polish: ciao
• → Portuguese: tchau
• → Romanian: ciao
• → Russian: ча́о (čáo)
• → Serbo-Croatian: ćao / ћао
• → Slovak: čau
• → Slovene: čáo
• → Spanish: chao, chau
• → Turkish: çav
• → Ukrainian: ча́о (čáo)

Further reading

• ciao on the Italian Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^it
• ciao on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Caio

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Italian ciao (“hello; goodbye”), from Venetan s-ciao (“servant, slave”) or sciavo (“servant, slave”), especially in the expression s-ciao vostro, literally “your slave”, used in the sense “at your service; your humble servant”. The Venetan word is from Medieval Latin sclavus (“slave”), from Late Latin Sclavus (“Slav”), from Ancient Greek Σκλάβος (Sklábos, “Slav”), from earlier Σκλαβηνός (Sklabēnós, “Slav”), ultimately from Proto-Slavic *slověninъ (“Slav”). The deeper origin of the Proto-Slavic ethnonym is uncertain.

The development from “your servant/slave” to a greeting is comparable to German Servus (“hello; goodbye”) and Swedish tjena (“hello”). Doublet of slave (“slave”) and slaver (“Slav”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tʃao/, [tʃao]
• Rhymes: -ao
• Hyphenation: ciao

Interjection

ciao

1. (colloquial) hello, hi; used as a greeting when meeting someone

   Synonym: hei

   Ciao! Hyggelig å se deg igjen. ― Hi! Nice to see you again.

   • 2002, Heidi Marie Kriznik, Applaus:

     når Olsen kom sa de som regel: Ciao

     when Olsen came, they usually said: Ciao

2. (colloquial) bye, goodbye; used as a farewell

   Synonym: morna

   Da sees vi i morgen. Ciao! ― Then I'll see you tomorrow. Bye!

   • 1993, Ingvar Ambjørnsen, Utsikt til paradiset, page 42:

     … Gjør ikke noe. Jeg fikser det selv. Ciao

     … Never mind. I'll sort it out myself. Bye.

References

• “ciao” in Norwegian Academy Dictionary (NAOB).

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Italian ciao, from Venetan sciavo (“slave”), from Medieval Latin sclavus (“slave”). This in turn is from Late Latin Sclavus (“Slav”), from Medieval Greek Σκλάβος (Sklábos), from Proto-Slavic *slověninъ, as Slavs were often forced into slavery in the Middle Ages. Doublet of slave and slavar.

Development and use is similar to the Southern German and Central European greeting of servus and Swedish tjena.

Interjection

ciao

1. ciao

   Synonyms: adjø, farvel

Romanian

Etymology

Etymology tree

substrateder.?

Proto-Indo-European *ḱlewH-der.?

Proto-Slavic *slov-

Proto-Slavic *-ǫta

Proto-Slavic *Slov-?

Proto-Balto-Slavic *-ēnas

Proto-Indo-European *-nós

Proto-Indo-European *-iHnos

Proto-Slavic *-inъ

Proto-Slavic *-ěninъ

Proto-Slavic *slověninъder.

Ancient Greek Σκλαβηνός (Sklabēnós)der.

Medieval Greek Σκλᾰ́βος (Sklắbos)bor.

Late Latin Sclavus

Medieval Latin sclavus

Venetan s-ciao, sciavobor.

Italian ciaobor.

Romanian ciao

Borrowed from Italian ciao.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃau/

Interjection

ciao!

1. Hello!
2. Goodbye!

Spanish

Interjection

ciao

1. alternative spelling of chao