It's 4:30. Good night.

[beachboy]

In Frenzi, by Alfred Hitchcook, one of the characters tells her secretary: "Mrs. So and So, it's almost 4:30. Why don't you go home? Good night". Is it right or common to say good night in this scenario?

 

[Rover_KE]

At the end of the day's work, it's not unusual for co-workers to say 'Good night', even if it's only late afternoon.

 

[emsr2d2]

Why don't go home?

There's a word missing.

 

[Tdol]

I read somewhere that it is more common in AmE to do this, but it is not unknown in BrE.

 

[emsr2d2]

Am I the only person here who would use "Goodnight" (one word), not "Good night" in this context? I would use two words only in something like "We had a really good night".

 

[GoesStation]

Am I the only person here who would use "Goodnight" (one word), not "Good night" in this context? I would use two words only in something like "We had a really good night".

I use two words, just as I write Good morning or Good evening.

 

[Tdol]

Am I the only person here who would use "Goodnight" (one word)

Possibly.;-)

 

[jutfrank]

Am I the only person here who would use "Goodnight" (one word), not "Good night" in this context?

No. I would too.

 

[Rover_KE]

I'd give you a goodnight kiss but wish you 'good night'.

 

[Tarheel]

I'll pass on the kiss.
;-)

 

[jutfrank]

That makes two of you.

At least.

I'm curious now as to what the split on this actually is. The one-word spelling is very common, but I don't think it's quite as common as the two-worder.

As for dictionary listings, the first I consulted (Collins) lists both, with no indication of which is more common. The second (Merriam-Webster) lists only the two-word spelling. The third (Cambridge) curiously lists only the two-word spelling, but then includes both versions among the examples of use. The fourth (dictionary.com) does the same.

I then got a bit bored, but I'd be interested if anyone has any further light to shed as to when the one-word spelling started to become common, and whether there is any varietal or other difference in usage patterns. Is the one-word spelling more of a British thing? Or is it simply that the one-word spelling is more common among younger and hipper speakers, like myself and emsr2d2?

 

[emsr2d2]

In the same way that I associate misplaced commas with collectors of clocks! ;-)

 

[jutfrank]

I generally associate that version with vegans,

:lol:

I'm eating a bacon and mushroom quiche as we speak, thank you very much.

Good bye.

 

[Tarheel]

Good night!

 

[Rover_KE]

... I'd be interested if anyone has any further light to shed as to when the one-word spelling started to become common, and whether there is any varietal or other difference in usage patterns.

Check out the Ngram. It's also interesting to change the corpus to AE and then BE.

 

[jutfrank]

Check out the Ngram. It's also interesting to change the corpus to AE and then BE.

That ngram doesn't work as a meaningful comparison because the search criterion 'good night' includes instances of uses such as It was a good night and I had a good night, not just the departing greeting use.

For a fair comparison, one needs then to exclude any other possibility than a departing greeting. I suggest this one, which shows the two-word phrase as roughly two to three times as frequent, across geographical and historical boundaries. American usage appears to have an insignificant preference for the two-word spelling relative to British usage.

Remember also that all the data there comes exclusively from published books, so it's probably not an ideal data set to use.

 

[jlinger]

"Good night" is definitely two words. If you want to make it informal in writing, use "g'night," which is, after all, how it would sound.

 

[Rover_KE]

"Good night" is definitely two words.

It isn't for those who choose to write it as one word.

Please state that you are not a teacher, in accordance with the forum's Posting Guidelines.

 

[jutfrank]

"Good night" is definitely two words.

Very astute of you. And Goodnight is one word.

(Sorry—I couldn't resist the sarcasm.)

 

[Skrej]

This is interesting. I honestly had no idea the single word version even existed until this thread. There's a raging debate on the internet, but just various opinions.

Are there single word versions of good morning/afternoon/evening?

Oddly enough, I've always written 'goodbye' as a single word, but if you want another can of even bigger worms, delve into the 'goodbye vs. good bye vs good-bye vs goodby vs good-by'. Again, I was surprised by Webster's inclusion of the latter two.


I have to wonder if the fact that part of the ambiguity on the spelling of these phrases doesn't stem from the fact that they're so infrequently written as opposed to spoken.