adieu

Cliché to say good-bye to someone or something. (The word adieu is French for good-bye and should not be confused with ado.) Now it's time to bid adieu to all of you gathered here. He silently bid adieu to his favorite hat as the wind carried it down the street.

Say goodbye, take leave of, as in It's beyond my bedtime, so I bid you all adieu, or I'll be glad to bid adieu to these crutches. French for "goodbye," adieu literally means "to God" and was part of à dieu vous commant, "I commend you to God." Adopted into English in the 1300s, it was first recorded in Chaucer's Troilus and Cressida (c. 1385). Today it is considered quite formal, although it also is used humorously.