What does "good morning" actually mean?

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Participant626
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17 Apr 2025, 9:29 am

What does "good morning" actually mean?
a) I hope you're having a good morning
b) I wish you have a good morning
c) I am having a good morning
d) We are having a good morning
e) The local environment is good this morning. (This would have been more important when we had to ensure the weather as it was before modern housing and technology).
f) Something else


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babybird
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17 Apr 2025, 10:06 am

It's like a cheery hello that you say in the morning time to people

I like it me


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Irulan
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17 Apr 2025, 10:26 am

We, Poles, don't say "good morning" nor "good afternoon", we just say "good day". :D



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17 Apr 2025, 10:33 am

I am often unsure whether to say good morning when it's around noon, and in the evenings I'll say good evening if it's getting dark or around suppertime. Occasionally also good day. I see it as a way to be friendly and hope they are having a good day. Even if they aren't, people might feel better for it


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vergil96
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17 Apr 2025, 10:51 am

I think a or b



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17 Apr 2025, 11:21 am

I've always seen stuff like this as pointless which I know is seen as rude by some.


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utterly absurd
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17 Apr 2025, 1:44 pm

I think it usually just means "hello", at which point you should just say hello.


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17 Apr 2025, 2:33 pm

This is like in The Hobbit(which I read years before any of the live-action LOTR movies came out), which officially begins when Bilbo is outside on a beautiful spring day, and then Gandalf shows up. Bilbo was in a good mood and said, "Good morning!" But Gandalf asked him what he meant by that, such as do you feel good this morning, or is it a morning to be good on? Bilbo, not missing a beat said "All of them at once!"

But as the conversation between them grew more unsettling, Bilbo started using good morning for a lot more reasons, according to Gandalf. It seemed by "Good morning!" Bilbo now meant "You're a strange wizard and I don't want to be in your adventure or anyone else's and you're creeping me out so please leave!" :lol:



Last edited by lostonearth35 on 17 Apr 2025, 7:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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17 Apr 2025, 4:20 pm

utterly absurd wrote:
I think it usually just means "hello", at which point you should just say hello.
This is probably the most accurate interpretation... However that is probably due to laziness...the expression probably started out actually meaning something from the list of choices in the poll...and inflection could probably make several of the poll choices viable.


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lostonearth35
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17 Apr 2025, 7:16 pm

When people say good morning, it's really just a greeting to sound polite and friendly and you're supposed to say good morning back, even if you think it's not a good morning for whatever reason.

If you say something like, "What's so good about it?" other people will think you're a jerk.



cyberdora
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17 Apr 2025, 8:04 pm

Participant626 wrote:
What does "good morning" actually mean?
a) I hope you're having a good morning
b) I wish you have a good morning
c) I am having a good morning
d) We are having a good morning
e) The local environment is good this morning. (This would have been more important when we had to ensure the weather as it was before modern housing and technology).
f) Something else


In old english (Good morning) and scandanavian (God morgon) conveys wishing somebody well first thing in the day. So technically (b)

AI got this on wrong as it seems to be stuck on middle English due to its reliance on digitised literature. But Given its virtually identical use in Scandinavian and the origin of old English to the Jutes/Angles it almost certainly is a kind of well-wishing one gives to their fellow villager at the crack of dawn from at least the old English period.



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17 Apr 2025, 9:53 pm

It's just a friendly hailing signal. But it's nice to think that most people who say it actually wish you did have a good morning. It's a bit too stiff for me, and I prefer "hi" or "eyup." I get bored with using the same greeting phrase all the time, so I like to switch them occasionally. "What's up?" confused me at first, because where I came from it means "what's wrong?" I don't know what Americans think it means, but I guess they just use it as a blurred hailing signal that doesn't really mean anything except "hello."

Talking of "hello," I saw on the kids' show Blue Peter that there was a time when Britain was divided between the use of "hello" and "ahoy" when using a telephone, and that people would go around with their preferred word printed on their clothing or something, until the matter was resolved and "hello" won. But maybe it was a Blue Peter April Fool's Day prank. Personally, I like "ahoy" better but I rarely have the gall to use it.



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17 Apr 2025, 10:18 pm

ToughDiamond wrote:
Talking of "hello," I saw on the kids' show Blue Peter that there was a time when Britain was divided between the use of "hello" and "ahoy" when using a telephone, and that people would go around with their preferred word printed on their clothing or something, until the matter was resolved and "hello" won. But maybe it was a Blue Peter April Fool's Day prank. Personally, I like "ahoy" better but I rarely have the gall to use it.


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17 Apr 2025, 10:25 pm

ToughDiamond wrote:
It's just a friendly hailing signal. But it's nice to think that most people who say it actually wish you did have a good morning. It's a bit too stiff for me, and I prefer "hi" or "eyup." I get bored with using the same greeting phrase all the time, so I like to switch them occasionally. "What's up?" confused me at first, because where I came from it means "what's wrong?" I don't know what Americans think it means, but I guess they just use it as a blurred hailing signal that doesn't really mean anything except "hello."

Talking of "hello," I saw on the kids' show Blue Peter that there was a time when Britain was divided between the use of "hello" and "ahoy" when using a telephone, and that people would go around with their preferred word printed on their clothing or something, until the matter was resolved and "hello" won. But maybe it was a Blue Peter April Fool's Day prank. Personally, I like "ahoy" better but I rarely have the gall to use it.


Mr. Burns and I are still clinging to ahoy-hoy. Image


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17 Apr 2025, 10:26 pm

lostonearth35 wrote:
When people say good morning, it's really just a greeting to sound polite and friendly and you're supposed to say good morning back, even if you think it's not a good morning for whatever reason.

If you say something like, "What's so good about it?" other people will think you're a jerk.


Or that you're just making a cynical joke.
Or that they've caught you at a really bad moment.


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ToughDiamond
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17 Apr 2025, 11:26 pm

cyberdora wrote:
ToughDiamond wrote:
Talking of "hello," I saw on the kids' show Blue Peter that there was a time when Britain was divided between the use of "hello" and "ahoy" when using a telephone, and that people would go around with their preferred word printed on their clothing or something, until the matter was resolved and "hello" won. But maybe it was a Blue Peter April Fool's Day prank. Personally, I like "ahoy" better but I rarely have the gall to use it.


Did you grow up on Captain Pugwash?.

I most certainly did, Master Bate.