God bless you

English

Etymology

From Middle English God blesse you, God blisse you. A clause in the present subjunctive inherited intact from a time when English was freely productive of it. Diachronically it is not a shortening; synchronically it is often surface-analyzed as such; present-day English has a heavy need for the modal auxiliary (may) to ensure syntactic clarity, whereas earlier English could more easily drop it.

Pronunciation

  • Audio (Southern England):(file)

Interjection

God bless you!

  1. May God bless you; said as a short prayer, benediction, or valediction for the recipient; usually religiously; sometimes nonliterally but rhetorically or culturally.
    Synonyms: God bless, bless you, God be with you
    I heard you helped them with clearing away the downed tree. God bless you! The Lord provides!
    You got that whole area cleaned up in one day? God bless you! I'll buy your coffee today!
    • 1811, [Jane Austen], chapter VIII, in Sense and Sensibility […], volume III, London: […] C[harles] Roworth, […], and published by T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, pages 185–186:
      “But she will be gained by some one else. And if that some one should be the very he whom, of all others, I could least bear—But I will not stay to rob myself of all your compassionate good-will, by shewing that where I have most injured I can least forgive. Good bye,—God bless you!” And with these words, he almost ran out of the room.
  2. Said to somebody who has sneezed, as a rhetorical response; alternative form of bless you.

Derived terms

Translations

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