Farewell, Dear Friends!
Thank You for Your Time
Farewells and Friendships
Farewell feels so permanent. Typically, we say, bye, ciao, aloha, or catch you later when we expect a soon reunion. On the other hand, farewell, intimates the end, like Elton John’s Farewell Tour.
How easily we take for granted windows of opportunity, those fleeting portals that align our lives with the lives of others. These windows are rarely stable but slide between each other like Olympic speed skaters, often aligned for mere moments, occasionally for a few years. If these windows prove durable for a measurable time and provide ingress between both, we name them friendships. I consider you, my readers as friends.
Nevertheless, my guide for this post is the word farewell. We see farewell, this demure but oft-used word, carrying within it a rich history and providing excellent utility. Not only does farewell connote finality, it often elicits a sense of loss. At least, this is how I feel about my announcement.
Etymology of Farewell
The word farewell, a combination of fare and well, seems to have evolved from faren wel (c. 1200). Fare is a kind of mutt of an English word. It comes from the Old English word faran, which has in its lineage Proto-Germanic faranan (source also of Old Saxon, Old High German, Gothic faran, Old Norse and Old Frisian fara, Dutch varen, German fahren).¹
The word well is as much of a mutt as fare. The Old English word wel has in its lineage, Proto-Germanic wel (source also of Old Saxon wela, Old Norse vel, Old Frisian wel, Dutch wel, Old High German wela, German wohl, Gothic waila), Also, Sanskrit prati varam, Old Church Slavonic vole , Welsh gwell, and Latin velle.¹
Exit, Stage Left
“How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.” — A.A. Milne (Winnie-the-Pooh)
I guess we all need a word to tell others that they are exiting a shared community. Farewell seems to be a good word for that. And that is my message. Through the mechanism of “Medium,” I have been blessed” to share my thoughts and ideas with you for two years. However, the outcome is the same regardless of farewell’s etymology or friendship’s transient nature. Farewell, Dear Friends.
This is my last article for Medium. You can read my Christian posts on Rock Excavation Service, listen to my podcast collection about my work experiences in technology on Spotify, read Green news on my The Green Jobs Report site, read my tweets about new technologies at National Tech Front, and find my book, Finding Christ in the Pentateuch on Amazon.
