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I googled for a bit and it seems like ご機嫌よう/ごきげんよう ("gokigenyou") has both a
greeting and a farewell meaning, but I couldn't find any etymology to explain
it. Does it consist of any simpler parts, or is this a whole word/phrase? Why
is it both a greeting and a farewell? I don't think there are other phrases
like that but maybe I'm wrong about that.
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2017-04-14T14:45:15.937
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2020-03-19T02:32:42.123
2020-03-19T02:32:42.123
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question
etymology
Explanation of ambiguous "gokigenyou"
**ごきげんよう** _gokigen'yō_

  * [ご](http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/jn/71159/meaning/m0u/) (honorific prefix)
  * [きげん](http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/jn/51333/meaning/m0u/%E6%A9%9F%E5%AB%8C/) ("mood; tide")
  * よう (old-fashioned form for よく, a conjugation† of [よい](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E8%89%AF%E3%81%84#Japanese))

Altogether means "your mood (being) well", or practically "in good mood; in
good shape".

> _Why is it both a greeting and a farewell? I don't think there are other
> phrases like that but maybe I'm wrong about that._

Well... this word is pretty much analogous in many ways to "Good day!" in
English. With the verb omitted, the phrase can stand for both "it is a good
day" and "have a good day", thus has dual use as hello and goodbye.

* * *

† The inflection of adjectives is normally called _declension_ , but in
Japanese context I'm more comfortable to call it _conjugation_ nevertheless.
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2017-04-14T15:48:22.433
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2017-04-14T15:57:37.353
2017-04-14T15:57:37.353
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answer