Vidā and Al-vidā

© Abhishek Avtans

विदा / बिदा vidā / bidā (farewell, sending off; departure) is an Arabic origin word in Hindi/Urdu. The word was borrowed from Persian vidā (farewell), which took it from Arabic وداع वदाअ wadāʕ. रुख़्सत rukhsat is a synonym of vidā.

विदाई /बिदाई vidāī / bidāī is the nativized noun/adjective. In Sanskrit, the word for farewell is आप्रच्छन āpracchana (expression of civility on receiving or parting with a visitor, bid farewell etc.). Some others have coined अनुज्ञा सम्मेलन anujñā sammelan for a farewell ceremony. In Marathi, we use निरोप समारंभ nirop samārambh for a farewell ceremony. For marriage rituals गमन gaman is the equivalent of vidāī विदाई.

अलविदा alvidā (goodbye) is from Arabic الوَدَاع al-wadāʻ (farewell).

References

Steingass, Francis Joseph (1892). A Comprehensive Persian-English dictionary, including the Arabic words and phrases to be met with in Persian literature. London: Routledge & K. Paul.

Monier-Williams, M., Leumann, E., & Cappeller, C. (1976). A Sanskrit-English dictionary : etymologically and philologically arranged with special reference to cognate Indo-European languages (New ed., greatly enl. and improved / with the collab. of E. Leumann, C. Cappeller, and other scholars, repr.). Motilal Banarsidass.

Arts, Tessy. (2014). Oxford Arabic dictionary : Arabic-English · English – Arabic (First). Oxford University Press. Oxford.