'til we meet again

[mcoull]

where does this saying originate from

[fountalnpen]

it is a simple translation from the French, also German. Think, for example, of 'Au Revoir'.

[New Forester]

Perhaps it was the French and Germans who translated the English phrase... It does look like an obvious phrase to use at parting, which has then developed into a semi-ritual formula. Parting phrases generally do this. Isn't "Goodbye" a contraction of "God be with you"? (Or even "God be with you until we meet again"...) Then there's farewell, a contraction of "fare thee well", which I imagine is the expression of a wish that the other will, let me see, "fare", um, "well". Offhand I can't think of a parting phrase or word which does not do this somehow. "Get lost", perhaps...? More to the point, who is it who uses "'Til we meet again" regularly instead of other phrases? For some reason I associate it with Scots -- could it also be a Burns quote or something? Could it be a formulaic response to "God be with you", in the way that "See you later, alligator" always prompts "In a while, crocodile"?

[puddin_n_pie]

"Till we meet again" is often used on scottish gravestones / tombstones where one of a couple has died - therefore they engrave on the headstone that they will miss them - until they meet again ( when the other dies - possibly meeting in heaven)