ciao

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian ciao (“hello, goodbye”), from Venetian ciao (“hello, goodbye, your (humble) servant”), from Venetian s-ciao / s-ciavo (“servant, slave”), from Medieval Latin sclavus (“Slav, slave”), related also to Italian schiavo, English Slav, slave and Old Venetian S-ciavón ("Slav"), from Latin Sclavonia (“Slavonia”). Not related to Vietnamese chào (“hello, goodbye”).

intj

  1. Hello, hi.
  2. Bye, goodbye.

noun

  1. A greeting or farewell using the word "ciao".
    […] he excused himself, disappearing in a cloud of ciaos and operatic Italian. 2010, Robert V. Camuto, Palmento: A Sicilian Wine Odyssey, page 16
    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. 2007, Darwin Porter, Danforth Prince, Bahamas For Dummies, page 196

Attribution / Disclaimer All definitions come directly from Wiktionary using the Wiktextract library. We do not edit or curate the definitions for any words, if you feel the definition listed is incorrect or offensive please suggest modifications directly to the source (wiktionary/ciao), any changes made to the source will update on this page periodically.