auf Wiedersehen (German)
Where does "auf Wiedersehen" come from?
The German farewell 'auf Wiedersehen' literally translates to 'until our reunion' or 'until we see each other again.' It likely emerged as a calque of the French 'au revoir,' adopting the same concept of expressing a future meeting. This phrase belongs to a common linguistic pattern found across many languages, such as the Italian 'arrivederci' and the Dutch 'tot ziens,' all of which share the sentiment of anticipation for a next encounter.
Full etymology tree
- auf Wiedersehen (German), 'goodbye'
- calque au revoir (French), 'goodbye'
- compound au (French), 'contraction of à + le, literally “to the, for the, at the”'
- inherited ad (Latin), 'toward, to'
- inherited *ad (Proto-Italic), 'toward, to, on, up to, for'
- inherited *h₂éd (Proto-Indo-European), 'to, at'
- inherited *ad (Proto-Italic), 'toward, to, on, up to, for'
- inherited ad (Latin), 'toward, to'
- compound revoir (French), 'to see again'
- affix re- (French), 're-'
- deverbal voir (French), 'to see (visually)'
- inherited vidēre (Latin), 'inflection of videō:'
- inherited videō (Latin), 'to see, perceive; look (at)'
- inherited *widēō (Proto-Italic), 'to see'
- inherited *weyd- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to see'
- inherited *widēō (Proto-Italic), 'to see'
- inherited videō (Latin), 'to see, perceive; look (at)'
- inherited vidēre (Latin), 'inflection of videō:'
- compound au (French), 'contraction of à + le, literally “to the, for the, at the”'
- calque au revoir (French), 'goodbye'
Ancestors
- au revoir (French)
Cognates and doublets
- tot ziens (Dutch)
- until we meet again (English)
- arrivederci (Italian)
Descendants and derived words
- auf Nimmerwiedersehen (German)
- auf Nimmerwiedersehen (German)
Updated July 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris