ciao
English
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”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /t͡ʃaʊ/
Audio (Southern England) (file) - Rhymes: -aʊ
- Homophone: chow
Interjection
ciao
- hello, hi.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:hello
- bye, goodbye.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:goodbye
Translations
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Noun
ciao (plural ciaos)
- 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.
- 2010, Robert V. Camuto, Palmento: A Sicilian Wine Odyssey (page 16)
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
- (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
From Italian ciao (“hello, goodbye”), from Venetian ciao (“hello, goodbye; your (humble) servant”), from Venetian 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 Venetian S-ciavón ("Slav"), from Latin Sclavonia (“Slavonia”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /tʃa.o/, /tʃaw/
Audio (file)
Interjection
ciao
- 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 Venetian ciao, ultimately from Latin sclavus. Doublet of Sklave and Slawe.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [t͡ʃaʊ̯]
Audio (file)
Interjection
ciao
- 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
- ciao
Synonyms
- adeo
Italian
Etymology
Borrowed from Venetian 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 Venetian 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
- hello!
- Synonyms: salve(formal), buongiorno
- 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!
- This is the flower of the partisan,
Derived terms
- ciao ciao
Descendants
- → Alemannic German: tschau, tschavò
- → Bavarian: ciao
- → Bulgarian: ча́о (čáo)
- → Czech: čau
- → Esperanto: ĉaŭ
- → Dutch: tjo
- → Estonian: tšau, tsau, tšauki, tsauki
- → 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; ciao
- → Russian: ча́о (čáo)
- → Serbo-Croatian:
- Cyrillic: ћао
- Latin: 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 Venetian 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
- ciao
Norwegian Nynorsk
Etymology
From Italian ciao, from Venetian 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
- ciao
- Synonyms: adjø, farvel
Romanian
Etymology
Borrowed from Italian ciao.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈt͡ʃau/
Interjection
ciao!
- Hello!
- Goodbye!
Spanish
Interjection
ciao
- Alternative spelling of chau