Hi and a question

[Colin Harrison]

>Hi
>
>I'm new to the list but it seems like everyone's pretty quiet.
>
>I've been wondering about the etymology of the word "BYE"
>-egs: Goodbye...bye-bye etc
>
>My dictionaries (may they live forever) can't tell me where the word
>originated other than that it is colloquial, which is really rather vague.
>Any ideas out there?
>
>I've wondered it the word isn't a borrowing from Hindi or a dialect of it.
>I'm still trying to find samples, but I'm sure that I've heard it
>somewhere before....
>
>mark
>South Africa

I don't know if this is attested, but I have heard that "bye" is a
contraction of "goodbye" (probably due to the persistent analysability of
the "good"; and that "goodbye" is itself a contraction of "God be with ye!"
At least it's a nice story!

Colin Harrison
Rice University