It’s summertime & I thought you’d like to know about the word “ciao”. Pronunciation: [ˈtʃaːo]. A short thread.

The origin is from the formal Venetian salutation "s-ciào vostro", I’m your slave. This derives from Medieval Latin sclavus, itself linked to the ethnic "Slavic"...

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... since most of the slaves came from the Balkans. In German you still can say "servus" today.

You find it in late 18th century in the comedies of Venetian playwright Carlo Goldoni, and was finally introduced into Italian in the 1800s. So it’s basically 200 years old.

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We use it informally for both "hello" & "goodbye". Formally, or when greeting older people, you’d better not use ciao. There are many other ways, the safest is ‘salve’ (from Latin salvere, meaning to be in good health), a friendly and polite way hello (but not goodbye…).

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Back to ciao. In 1959 Domenico Modugno with Johnny Dorelli won the Sanremo song festival with ‘Piove’. That song is remembered for the refrain: «Ciao ciao bambina», that was a big hit and translated in English as «Chiow Chiow Bambeena»...



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in German «Tschau Tschau Bambina», and Spanish «Chao chao bambina».

«Oh bella ciao» is an anthem of the anti-fascist resistance by the Italian partisans. Versions of "bella ciao" are sung worldwide as an anti-fascist hymn of freedom.



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The original song though was sung by female seasonal workers (“mondine”) of paddy fields of rice, especially in Italy's Po Valley from late 19th century to early 20th century. Monda (weeding) of the rice fields was an extremely tiring task carried out in atrocious conditions.

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You can say «ciao raga», «ciao neh», «ciaone» but it would take me too long to explain.

Fin/CIAO CIAO!