I am a big fan of words in general. But it's particularly nice to hear one you don't hear so often. This week's word revival chez me is 'farewell'. Somewhere down the line it became all over-dramatic and Heathcliffesque, but it's really rather more friendly than 'goodbye' to my mind. You wish someone a good journey or even life, in effect, rather than saying it's good that they're off. I suppose you could take it either way though cos now I think about it 'have a nice life' isn't a great sentiment either...
As ever I turn for help to the Online Etymology Dictionary, which tells me that 'faren wel' (journey well) was said in Middle English, and the standard REPLY was 'good-bye' which comes from God be with you (godbwye)...
So we should be using both.
Did I mention that I love words?
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