Meaning

noun an acknowledgment that can be used to say hello or goodbye (aloha is Hawaiian and ciao is Italian)

originBorrowed from Italian ciao (“hello, goodbye”), from Venetan ciao (“hello, goodbye, your (humble) servant”), from Venetan s-ciao / s-ciavo (“servant, slave”), from Medieval Latin sclavus (“Slav, slave”), related also to Italian schiavo, English Slav, slave and Old Venetan S-ciavón (“Slav”), from Latin Sclavus, ultimately from Proto-Slavic *slověninъ. Not related to Vietnamese chào (“hello,…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0