It's Hard To Say Goodbye (and It's Harder to Spell It Right)

A friend of mine asked, “Why do people use “goodbye,” “good-bye,” and “goodby?” Is there a difference among these?"

I thought it was easy to answer those questions, but it’s more complicated than it sounds. As far as differences are concerned, spelling can be pointed out as the only major distinction given its variations, such as goodbye, good-bye, goodby, or good-by. 

Besides spelling, they all mean the same thing. It’s the word people say before parting ways.

But, of course, that’s just me, as some dictionaries conflict when it comes to their spellings.

= Oxford English Dictionary (both American and British versions) prefers the unhyphenated goodbye and lists goodby and good-by as alternative spellings. It does not mention the hyphenated good-bye. (Check it here: https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/79929?redirectedFrom=good-bye& )

= Cambridge Dictionary affirms the unhyphenated goodbye and rejects all other spellings. (Check it here: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english-japanese/goodbye)

= Merriam-Webster Dictionary insists on the unhyphenated goodbye, while good-bye is considered as another variant. It lists goodby and good-by as less common variations, which are acceptable nonetheless. (Check it here: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/goodbye)

You may ask: “Which one is right?”

There’s one answer from English educators Jacob Young and Brian Wasko that I agree with. There’s no right answer! English has no officially recognized authoritative body. We generally arrive at a consensus regarding these things, but it takes a while for everyone to settle on one spelling. Sometimes, we never do. “Gray” and “grey” are both fine, as are “theatre” and “theater,” “buses” and “busses,” “hiccup” and “hiccough,” and so on.

Then, which one is most widely used?

Luckily, there’s a tool called “Google Ngram Viewer” that shows a list of a word’s most popular spellings that are sourced from publications from the 1500s to 2000s (Can we just pause and appreciate how awesome this tool is?!) This tool does not only cater to English but multiple languages as well! Here’s the Google Ngram for goodbye:

According to the graph, goodbye appeared more frequently than good-bye around 1960. It can be also be observed that goodbye ranked 3rd behind good-bye and good-by in the early 1900s, while goodby was consistently the least preferred variation.

Although goodbye is the clear winner, it’s interesting to note that all four still appeared in our searches. The unhyphenated variation is now preferred, which is unsurprising because many hyphens have perished as the English language developed. Words such as “crybaby,” “bumblebee,” and “tomorrow” were once spelled “cry-baby,” “bumble-bee,” and “to-morrow.”

Finally, goodbye, including other spelling variations, originated from the phrase “God be with you,” or more precisely, “God be with ye.” My advice is to stick with the unhyphenated goodbye. The English language is ever-evolving, and it seems that goodbye is the variant that everybody has settled on now.