so long

American  

interjection

Informal.

1. goodbye.

   I said so long and left.

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so long British  

1. informal farewell; goodbye

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adverb

1. slang for the time being; meanwhile

so long Idioms  

1. Good-bye, as in So long, we'll see you next week. The allusion here is puzzling; long presumably means “a long time” and perhaps the sense is “until we meet again after a long time,” but the usage has no such implication. [Colloquial; first half of 1800s]

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Etymology

Origin of so long

An Americanism dating back to 1840–50

Example Sentences

He would come up to her desk and talk for so long that she’d pull up a chair for him.

From Los Angeles Times

It is almost beyond belief that an England team has gone so long without winning a Test in this country.

From BBC

"It was like something opened up in my mind and said: 'Eat everything, go on, you deserve it because you haven't eaten anything for so long'."

From BBC

"I just asked him, like, you know, you worked for so long for SpaceX, do you think that people like me can be astronauts?"

From BBC

The short answer is yes, so long as Fed policy is stable, the economy grows, and profit margins continue to expand.

From Barron's

Related Words

• goodbye
• send-off
• sendoff