ciao

English

Etymology

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
• ciao for now

Translations

hello — see hello

goodbye — see goodbye

transliteration of the Italian greeting or farewell

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

  Roman: 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

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

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:

  (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:

  (file)

Interjection

ciao

1. ciao

Further reading

• “ciao” in Duden online
• “ciao” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

Interlingua

Etymology

From Italian ciao (“hello, goodbye”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃao/

Interjection

ciao

1. ciao

Synonyms

• adeo

Italian

Etymology

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.

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

• → Alemannic German: tschau, tschavò
• → Bavarian: ciao
• → Bulgarian: ча́о (čáo)
• → Czech: čau
• → Dutch: tjo
• → Esperanto: ĉaŭ
• → Estonian: tšau, tsau, tšauki, tsauki
• → Finnish: tsau, tsaukki
• → French: ciao, tchao
• → German: tschau, ciao
• → Hungarian: csaó, csá
• → Interlingua: ciao
• → Japanese: チャオ (chao)
• → Latvian: čau
• → Macedonian: чао (čao)
• → Maltese: ċaw
• → Norwegian Bokmål: ciao
• → Norwegian Nynorsk: ciao
• → Polish: ciao
• → Portuguese: tchau, chau, xau (Portugal), ciao (dated)
• → Russian: ча́о (čáo)
• → Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic script: ћао

  Latin script: ćao

• → 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

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

Interjection

ciao

1. ciao

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 Byzantine Greek Σκλάβος (Sklábos), from Proto-Slavic *slověninъ, as Slavs were often forced into slavery in the Middle Ages. Doublet of slave and slavar.

Interjection

ciao

1. ciao

   Synonyms: adjø, farvel

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian ciao.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃau/

Interjection

ciao!

1. Hello!
2. Goodbye!

Spanish

Interjection

ciao

1. Alternative spelling of chao