Is this etymology for cheerio correct?

Factual Questions
1

I just read a factoid about the etymology of the word cheerio and I’m dubious.

It claimed the word has nothing to do with cheer. It’s supposedly originated in a period when well-to-do people rode around in sedan chairs (those fancy chairs with poles on the sides that servants carried). And when one of these people stepped outside to travel somewhere, they yelled out “Chair, ho!” to summon a sedan chair. Because people said this as they were leaving, the term was shortened to cheerio and became something people said as they departed a location even when they weren’t traveling by sedan chair.

As I said, I am dubious.

2

Nevermind. Misinterpreted the question.

3

Oxford English Dictionary says it’s an alteration of “cheero.” Cheero is from “cheer, ho,” which is “used to express good wishes on parting, typically in a cheerful or friendly manner” or “used as a friendly greeting or a call to attract attention.” So nothing to do with chairs. How boring.

4

Call me dubious as chair ho is two syllables and cheerio is three so it’s hardly shorter.

5

Chair-ho is what they used to call lap dancers.

6

Was there ever any time when English-speaking people routinely rode sedan chairs?

7

For the record, if you don’t have access to the OED, you can always check etymonline.com. They often have much of the same basic information, and they do state it comes from the word “cheer.”

The factoid smelled of a typical cutesy false etymology story, and the OP was right to be dubious.

8

Sounds like the setup for a good thread game: false etymologies.

9

There was a BBC radio show - ‘My Word!’ - with exactly that premise, back in the days when we all got around in sedan chairs.

10

When Mr. Lorry summons a carriage in A Tale of Two Cities, he shouts “Chair there!”

11

I think it was back before the sun set on the British Empire.

12

Benjamin Franklin did, as tangentially mentioned in this book:

(Franklin was an old man at the time, afflicted with arthritis.)

13

No, Franklin was riding the other kind of chair ho’s.

14

Back when well-to-do people had to deal with muddy, unpaved streets.

15

Very much so - around the Restoration up to the Georgian/Regency period, especially in cities like London, Edinburgh and Bath. They were useful in narrower streets, and were cheaper to hire than a cab (although the wealthy would have their own private ones).

But the OP’s factoid (at least, the factoid the OP is suspicious of) sounds like bullshit. For one thing, if you could afford a chair, you weren’t the one calling it, your footman would. Why would you use the call your servant used as a greeting to others of your own station? Hoi polloi, of course, didn’t call for chairs, they made their own way to a chair station or chair house (I’ve seen one of the Bath ones).

16

No, it did evolve from “cheero” to “cheerio”, probably influenced by “cheery”. But it was always “cheer” as in “What cheer?”

17

Yes, “chairs” (often without the “sedan”) are frequently mentioned in novels, etc., as a means of transport. The proposed etymology is apparently rubbish, but there’s no doubt that sedan chairs were in use.

18

Pity the poor peasant who applied for a job at the manor as a chairman rather than a footman because the job sounded easier.

19

pulykamell mentioned etymonline; I’d like to add wiktionary.

Link to etymonline
Link to wiktionary

I find both to be quite excellent sources of etymological insight.

20

Is a sedan chair the same as a litter, or something different? Wikipedia doesn’t have a page for “sedan chair”, but does have a page for “Litter”, which seems to include sedan chair as a sub-type.