Goodeve

Part of speech: interjection, noun

Definitions

1. An old-fashioned salutation offered in the evening, equivalent to wishing someone a pleasant night as they meet or part
2. A dated form of farewell or greeting spoken after sunset to wish another person well for the evening
3. An archaic expression used in the late part of the day as a polite way of saying good evening

Etymology: "Goodeve" is a compound of "good" and "eve," with "eve" meaning evening, and it was once a common greeting in the same way "good morning" and "good day" are today. Its literal sense is simply "good evening," since "eve" in Middle English referred to the evening, the period just before night. The word's lineage is plain: "good" comes from Old English "gōd," and "eve" comes from Old English "ǣfen," which is also the source of the "even" in "evening." Because "eve" in its older sense of evening survives mainly in this greeting and in words like "Christmas Eve," "goodeve" stands out as a relic of an earlier stage of English. It is a compound formed in English from native elements, not a borrowing.