ciao

ciao

C0352200 (chou)interj. Used to express greeting or farewell.

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[Italian, from dialectal ciau, alteration of Italian (sono vostro) schiavo, (I am your) servant, from Medieval Latin sclavus, slave, servant; see slave.]Word History: The Italian salutation ciao, which is now popular in many parts of the world outside Italy, originated in the dialects of northern Italy. In the dialect of Venice, ciau literally means "servant, slave," and is also used as a casual greeting, "I am your servant." Dialectal ciau corresponds to standard Italian schiavo, "slave," and both words come from Medieval Latin sclāvus. Declaring yourself someone's slave might seem like an extravagant gesture today, but expressions such as Your obedient servant or Your servant, madam were once commonplace in English. Similarly, the Classical Latin word servus meaning "slave" is still used as an informal greeting in southern Germany and in Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Ukraine, and other parts of central Europe that were formerly part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. At the opposite end of the world, in Southeast and East Asia, one even finds words that originally meant "slave" or "your slave" but have developed into pronouns of the first person through their use in showing respect and humility. In Japanese, for example, the word boku is used to mean "I, me," especially by boys and young men, and it comes from a Middle Chinese word meaning "slave" or "servant" and now pronounced pú in Mandarin.

ciao

(tʃau) sentence substitute an informal word for hello, goodbye

ciao

(tʃaʊ)

interj. (used as a word of greeting or parting.) [1925–30; < Italian, < Upper Italian; compare Venetian schiavo literally, slave < Medieval Latin sclāvus slave (orig. in a phrase analogous to Italian servo suo! your servant!)]

ciao

- Also ciau; from Italian, it is an alteration of schiavo, "(I am your) slave."See also related terms for slave.

ciao

An Italian word used as a greeting or farewell.

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

ciao - an acknowledgment that can be used to say hello or goodbye (aloha is Hawaiian and ciao is Italian)alohaacknowledgement, acknowledgment - a statement acknowledging something or someone; "she must have seen him but she gave no sign of acknowledgment"; "the preface contained an acknowledgment of those who had helped her"Italia, Italian Republic, Italy - a republic in southern Europe on the Italian Peninsula; was the core of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire between the 4th century BC and the 5th century AD

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