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"God Speed" ...where did this phrase originate?

6 Answers

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  • ?
    Lv 7
    1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    It's an abbreviation of "god speed you on your journey", the traditional farewell from 'way back when travel was extremely difficult and dangerous and there was a very real possibility that you might never return.

  • Sir J
    Lv 7
    1 decade ago

    It's "Godspeed" and it's a word from early English meaning "may God prosper you." The word Godspeed is used to wish a person good fortune or success, as on starting a journey, a new business, etc. It is usually found in expressions of the sort "to bid (a person) Godspeed."

    A few examples: "Evangelist, after he had kissed him, gave him one smile, and bid him God-speed. So he went on with haste..." (John Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress); "'I'm wishing you God-speed, Hattersley,' cried Arthur, 'and aiding you with my prayers'" (Anne Brontë Tenant of Wildfell Hall); "Rowland at the garden gate was giving his hostess Godspeed on her way to church" (Henry James, Roderick Hudson); "Eight years before he had seen his friend off at the North Wall and wished him God-speed" (James Joyce, Dubliners).

    Godspeed is a nominalization of the phrase God speed (you), understanding which depends on two things: speed in this sense means 'to prosper; succeed', which is now archaic, but which is the original sense of the word; and the verb is subjunctive, expressing a wish, with the entire phrase meaning "may God cause you to succeed."

    The word Godspeed (which can also be written God-speed) is from Middle English, first found in personal names in the thirteenth century.

  • 1 decade ago

    The word Godspeed is used to wish a person good fortune or success, as on starting a journey, a new business, etc. It is usually found in expressions of the sort "to bid (a person) Godspeed."

    A few examples: "Evangelist, after he had kissed him, gave him one smile, and bid him God-speed. So he went on with haste..." (John Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress); "'I'm wishing you God-speed, Hattersley,' cried Arthur, 'and aiding you with my prayers'" (Anne Brontë Tenant of Wildfell Hall); "Rowland at the garden gate was giving his hostess Godspeed on her way to church" (Henry James, Roderick Hudson); "Eight years before he had seen his friend off at the North Wall and wished him God-speed" (James Joyce, Dubliners).

    Godspeed is a nominalization of the phrase God speed (you), understanding which depends on two things: speed in this sense means 'to prosper; succeed', which is now archaic, but which is the original sense of the word; and the verb is subjunctive, expressing a wish, with the entire phrase meaning "may God cause you to succeed." Semantic parallels are such common expressions as God bless you or God forbid!; another nominalization is goddamn (as in "I don't give a good goddamn what you think"), shortened from God damn you.

    The word Godspeed (which can also be written God-speed) is from Middle English, first found in personal names in the thirteenth century.

  • 1 decade ago

    Actually as in the DaVinci code we have learned that the separation is in the wrong place...

    This expression originally came after a rain storm, when some poor ignoramus said, "Gods Peed" and it stuck

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  • 1 decade ago

    it came from the first space ship they told them come home safe god speed

  • 1 decade ago

    it was in spiderman the movie-but i don't know where it came from.

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