Good morning, or some derivative of it, isn’t as old as I thought it was. I figured it would go back to the beginning of time. It seems like the perfect way to greet the day. However, it only hales from about a thousand years ago. So where did this cheerful greeting start?
Before good morning, people greeted each other with a variant of good day. But someone in medieval times must have decided to greet their neighbor in Old English with a more time specific salutation and say “I wish you a goodne morgen”, which eventually got shortened to “goodne morgen”.
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The first known reference to “good morning”, or some form of it, is found in Europe in the late Middle Ages. Now, when I see Middle Ages, I say “Huh? When was that?” It is from the 5th century to the 15th century. I know, confusing. So, the late Middle Ages would have been the 1300s to the 1500s. A form of good morning was used in Germanic languages (German, English, Swedish, Norwegian, and Icelandic).
Le Morte d’Arthur by Thomas Malory, published in 1485, seems to be the first recorded use of good morning—then gode morwene. However, the use of it was likely well before that but didn’t get written down until then.
Old English used goodne morgen, while in German it was guten morgen, Swedish was god morgon, and Norwegian, god morgen. However, Iceland never conformed to good morning and remained with the equivalent of good day.
“Goodne morgen” turned into good morwe which in turn became good morrow that gave way to good morning. And in modern times might simply be “mornin’.”
The romance languages like French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian stuck with good day as in bonjour, buenos días, and buon giorno.
Ancient Rome and Biblical times had no comparable term for good morning but used phrases of wishing people health and peace.
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Conversely, gōd niht (good night) has been around only a little bit longer, since the 1200s. This also stems from Old English. Where good morning is a greeting, good night is a farewell.
Willow says “Fare thee well until the morrow.”
A "little white lie" grows into a very big problem. Meghann Livingston invents a husband to soothe her dying mother. But when her mom miraculously recovers and comes to visit, Meghann is hard-pressed to explain her "husband's" absence! Before Meghann can come clean, her handsome, elusive boss, Bruce Halloway, inadvertently steps into her romantic charade...and to Meghann's shock and horror, insists upon playing along. The masquerade's success depends upon them playing their newlywed games extremely well. When they do, both Meghann and Bruce—even as they struggle to overcome the consequences of their deceptions—find themselves falling in love...for real!
Mary lives in the Rocky Mountains with her Carolina dog, Shelby, and her pocket black Lab, Willow. She has three adult children and three incredibly adorable grandchildren. Find her online at: Books2Read Newsletter Blog FB FB Readers Group Amazon GoodReads BookBub
Sources
https://vintage.tn/how-long-have-people-been-saying-good-morning/
https://www.etymonline.com/word/good%20morning
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/awakening-history-untold-story-good-morning-maureen-mugi-6hqzf
https://fluentvista.com/where-did-the-term-good-morning-come-from/
https://www.calendar-uk.co.uk/frequently-asked-questions/who-invented-the-word-good-morning
https://selfexploration.academy/the-academic-glossary/good-night
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