“Good morning” is a term of welcome. “Good Night,” when said at night, is a term of leaving. You’d never say “good night” to someone who shows up at 11 pm for a party. Nor would you say good morning to someone leaving your house. Have a good morning, sure, or have a good day. Good Day is another term used while leaving. Then there’s Good Evening, which is the Good Morning of the night.
TL;DR Anon’s flame dashboard said good night, and he’s overcaffeinated and underslept and noted some wierd shit going on with wishing people Good [timeofday]
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Works exactly the same in German.
It probably stems from the same source
I used to start work an hour before the night shift changed over with the day shift at a medical facility. I’d always say “good night” to the workers leaving at 07:30hrs and they loved it. It was the end of their day, so it made sense.
Another thing, “good morning” can be a whole conversation, you can say “good morning” to somebody and then not talk to them anymore. But if you say “good afternoon” or “good evening” I feel like there’s an expectation that you have something else to say. Is that just me?
Then there is “nice night”
On the farm we used to throw wheat at each other. We called it ‘gluten tag’. /s
“Good Evening” however CAN be a phrase of welcoming.
Ok, Dracula…
Or a concierge :)
I’m surprised nobody hasn’t already posted the inevitable: “Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?”
I’m still trying to figure out why “how come” means “why.”
Proposal with no data: "how [did/does it] come [to be this way]“
Ok genius, bonus round. Why do we drive on parkways and park on driveways?
Jk that was a really good breakdown lol.
I guarantee there’s a word nerd that’s got that one loaded up, but alas, it is beyond my gift. And I’m certainly not going to look it up, as that would be cheating 😛
Good Morning can also mean “go away”, with the right tone
Buenos noches works both ways
It’s just the quirkyness of the English language
I mean night and day are whole ass parts of the day, so saying Good Those is saying “I hope you have a good whole ass part of the day”. Morning and Evening are just the starts of those periods, so saying Good Those is more like “Let’s have a good part of the day together”. Or maybe I’m just high.
Good day can be either
“Good day sir” = hello to a person of higher status.
“Good day sir!” In abrupt tone = please leave.
“G’Day mate” = casual Aussie hello
In french we have different forms, basically good day (bonjour) for greeting and Have a good day (bonne journée) for leaving. Same for good evening. Good night is only ever said when you are pretty sure someone is going to bed soon I think, I wouldn’t say it to someone off to do a night shift.
It’s all about tense (past, present, future) and the idioms which leave out those implied verbs that indicate tense. You can still wish someone a good night as a form of greeting, but you’ll need to use those “extra” words to avoid the idiomatic expression. Saying good evening is just the common shortened idiomatic form.
