Farewell - should we really say good-bye to Olde (Early Modern) English?

Farewell - a term not much used anymore, although it does have a rather interesting meaning. At first glance, one might mistake it as originally meaning fare-ye-well, and it may at one point have meant that, but upon a closer look into a dictionary, it is comprised of the words fare and well, fare having to meaning of someone being in a certain state, and well meaning. . . well, or in a good or fine manner. Close to that entry is fare-thee-well, which apart from a way to say good-bye, means "to do something to a state of perfection", such as "the actor played his part to a fare-thee-well.

As speakers of English in the twenty-first century, there doesn't seem to be much occasion to use these words as often as we might have in the past. After all, saying farewell to someone seems to have an air of finality about it, in a way that saying a simple 'good-bye' does not. It seems almost as if it were from another age, where men and women do not simply laze about with their iPads or a telly tuned to their favorite program.

It hearkens back to a time where people were, for lack of a better term, interested in the lives of people around them as life went on. They would prefer to hear about events in person, rather than seeing it on a screen with a hashtag saying something along the lines of "OMG i cant believe it. #bestdayever!!!" Unfortunately, many people that have grown up with this technology are far too complacent with not using capitalization, punctuation, or proper spelling. Here, we see the death of the apostrophe and cry out for its cruel abandonment. (Here is a link to the Apostrophe Protection Society: http://www.apostrophe.org.uk )

Okay, my "how times have changed" rant is (mostly) over, but the point still stands: by taking some older words, or even words with an older feel, we speakers have changed our language bit by bit. Some changes are great - using contractions are a nice convenience - yet other changes make the language feel (to me) to be a bit impersonal at times. Saying farewell to someone seems to hold a much deeper meaning than if one were to say later, homeslice. The former has a more intimate feel to it, as if the speaker of the words seems to care what they sound like. The latter on the other hand, has the air of disregard, as if the speaker is only saying good-bye because it's expected.

So, my fair Reader, I shall bid thee farewell until the next entry into this illustrious (I wish) blog.

(446 words, OE word never lost)