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adieu

UK/əˈdjuː/US/əˈdju/
nounC1Common in everyday speech and writing · #6,114 of 15,258leans spoken

Adieu is a farewell, in a formal or literary way. Bid adieu, a last adieu, adieu to all that.

It is French and English at once: kept in English for weight, and used for a parting that is final rather than a see you tomorrow. Bid adieu is the standard phrase. The French means to God, short for I commend you to God.

Definitions of adieu

  1. 1nounadieuA farewell, in a formal or literary way.C1

    “With a last wave from the deck of the ship, she bade adieu to her homeland.”

adieu is a farewell.

Where it comes from

Old French adieu shortens a Dieu vous comant, I commend you to God, from Latin deus, a god.

  1. Medieval Latin

    ad Deum — to God

  2. Old French

    adieu — to God

  3. Middle English

    adieu

  4. English, today

    adieu

Built from

  • a Dieu vous comant · Old French — I commend you to God

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”). a doublet of adios.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

adieu in the wild

  • "Comment te dire adieu" (English: "How to Say Goodbye to You") is a French adaptation of the song "It Hurts to Say Goodbye".

    Comment te dire adieu

  • The resultant "Comment te dire adieu" was combined with an arrangement relatively closer to the Caravelli version and included on Hardy's 1968 album.

    Comment te dire adieu

  • In the French-speaking parts of Switzerland where it was shot, the word "adieu" can mean both goodbye and hello.

    Goodbye to Language

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.