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long time no see

phraseB1Not compared — the two pools are counted one word at a time, so a phrase has no score

Long time no see is a friendly greeting to somebody you have not met for ages. Well, long time no see, long time no see, stranger.

The grammar is deliberately broken, and the phrase probably came into English as a translation of a Chinese greeting through pidgin. It is entirely friendly and is used with people you are pleased to meet again.

Definitions of long time no see

  1. 1phraselong time no seeA friendly greeting to somebody you have not met for ages.B1

    “"Long time no see!" she shouted when she spotted her old school friend at the station.”

long time no see is a greeting.

Where it comes from

Of uncertain origin, probably a translation of a Chinese greeting that entered English through pidgin.

  1. cmn

    很久沒見

  2. yue

    好耐冇見

  3. English, today

    long time no see

unknown. Possibly a yue 好耐冇見, cmn 很久沒見, cmn 好久不見, or similar expressions in other Chinese varieties, comparable to no can do or chop-chop – if so, most likely US Chinatown origin, or, alternatively, British Far East such as Hong Kong. Alternatively, native American origin, or native coinage as pidgin, particularly in cinematic portrayals of native Americans; compare language used by Tonto (1930s).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

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