Comment by davidw
7 hours ago
Ciao is an interesting one.
Kind of like you might say 'your humble servant' in English, the Venetians would say "sciavo vostro". Literally "your slave" - schiavo vostro in modern Italian. Which then morphed into "ciao".
At least in Alsace we sometime use "service" as a "you're welcome" equivalent instead of the more widespread "de rien", or "avec plaisir" you will ear in France.
Brasilian Portuguese adopted that as their main greeting though spelled “tchau”.
In Bavaria and Austria they say "servus" which literally means slave/servant in Latin.
Yes, when they are not Grüß Gotting.
My brain tried to insert an ö to make that Göttingen.