# So long??

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-long/127665>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 9, 2002, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-long/127665 "2002-09-09T15:34:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![gouda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c77e96/32.png) [@gouda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gouda)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2002, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-long/127665/1 "2002-09-09T15:34:18Z")

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Why, why, why do we say “so long!!” as a farewell??

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**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2002, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-long/127665/2 "2002-09-09T15:49:49Z")

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According the the handy-dandy _Oxford English Dictionary_, it dates from 1865 in English and looks to be an Anglicization of the German _so lange_, which means something like “that’s enough” or “that’s all.”

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**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2002, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-long/127665/3 "2002-09-09T15:51:45Z")

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This site [http://phrases.shu.ac.uk/bulletin\_board/3/messages/616.html](http://phrases.shu.ac.uk/bulletin_board/3/messages/616.html) dismisses the idea that it is from Arabic “salaam” or Hebrew “shalom” and suggests that it is just a conventional abbreviation for some such expression as ‘Don’t let it be so long until we meet again’.

I have heard it suggested - I have no authority and no cite - that it is an anglicisation of “slán”, a Gaelic expression used as a farewell. It’s pronounced something like “slawn”.

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**Author:** ![gouda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c77e96/32.png) [@gouda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gouda)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2002, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-long/127665/4 "2002-09-09T16:02:50Z")

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I know german pretty well, and have lived there for about a year, in various parts of the country, and I’m pretty sure _so lange_ doesn’t mean “thats enough” or “thats all”. But then again, in 1865, maybe!

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**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2002, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-long/127665/5 "2002-09-09T16:44:45Z")

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Sorry, you’re quite right. I lost a bit in c&p.

Read that as “Which I assume meant something like ‘that’s that’.”