ciao means hello, hi.
ciao is pronounced /t͡ʃaʊ/.
Why “ciao” is a great word
An informal Italian salutation meaning both 'hello' and 'goodbye,' from Italian ciao, from Venetian ciao ('your (humble) servant'), from Venetian s-ciao/s-ciavo ('servant, slave'), from Medieval Latin sclavus ('Slav, slave'), ultimately from Proto-Slavic *slověninъ ('Slav'). Unlike arrivederci, which formally commits to farewell, or salve, which neutrally hails from a respectful distance, ciao is the chameleon word of easy intimacy. It is the breezy call across a sun-drenched piazza, the murmured close of a telephone call, and the quick, soft brush of a cheek-kiss between friends—a single syllable that collapses the distance between meeting and parting into a gesture of effortless connection, the sound of pure, unmarked presence.
Etymology
Borrowed from Italian ciao (“hello, goodbye”), from Venetan ciao (“hello, goodbye, your (humble) servant”), from Venetan s-ciao / s-ciavo (“servant, slave”), from Medieval Latin sclavus (“Slav, slave”), related also to Italian schiavo, English Slav, slave and Old Venetan S-ciavón (“Slav”), from Latin Sclavus, ultimately from Proto-Slavic *slověninъ. Not related to Vietnamese chào (“hello, goodbye”). Doublet of Slav and slave.
intj
- Hello, hi.
- Bye, goodbye.
noun
- A greeting or farewell using the word "ciao".e.g.“[…] he excused himself, disappearing in a cloud of ciaos and operatic Italian.” — 2010, Robert V. Camuto, Palmento: A Sicilian Wine Odyssey, page 16:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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