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Have a nice day

Posted by ESC on December 25, 1999

In Reply to: Have a nice day posted by ESC on December 23, 1999

: Continuing a discussion from the "other side."
: HAVE A NICE DAY -- "have a nice day is a catchphrase cliché used as a standard greeting. It is still considered less common in Britain than it is in America, where it was popularized by truck-drivers on their CB radios.'have a nice one' is an even more annoying alternate form of the expression." From "Cliches: Over 1,500 Phrases Explored and Explained" by Betty Kirkpatrick (1996, St. Martin's Press).

Part II -- "have a good (nice) day. As William Safire points out in 'On Language' , Chaucer used the expression 'Fare well, have a good day' in 'The Knight's Tale' of the 'Canterbury Tales' . It is still common today with the variation 'have a nice day' probably even more prevalent since about 1970. Writers have railed against both banal expressions, but they are harmless enough and usually said with good feeling." From Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins by Robert Hendrickson (Facts on File, 1997).

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