'Nazdar' and 'čauzr' – a brief history of Czech greetings from past to present

Even those with a basic understanding of Czech will be familiar with some of the country's most commonly used informal greetings: “Ahoj,” “nazdar,” and “čau.” But where do those phrases come from and how are they used today?

In a recent interview with iDnes.cz linguist Martin Šemelík discusses the evolution of Czech written and verbal greetings. He notes that the proliferation of technology has meant written greetings (and messages in general) have become less formal in Czechia, as speed now trumps politeness. He adds that Czechs are “not very creative” in their ideas of new greetings many of which come from other languages.

With "World Hello Day" celebrated earlier this week on Nov. 21, we explored the origins of Czech greetings and farewells and some of the new expressions that are used today.

History tells us that Czech greetings have changed drastically over the last century. During the communist period, for example, it was common for some people to greet one another with “čest práci,” (literally meaning honor of work). Going further back, non-verbal greetings were also more common: the practice in the first half of the 20th century of a man greeting a woman with a kiss on the hand is now nearly obsolete.

In the 1990s the moderator of a popular Czech music program opened the show with the greeting “Chágo bélo,” which soon became commonplace in public, but today is seldom heard. As foreign influence made its way to the Czech Republic, phrases like “hezký den” (“have a nice day”) were thought to come from the UK or U.S. The greeting "skol," sometimes used by Czech skiers, originates from Sweden.

So how do Czechs greet each other these days? A search of Neologismy.cz, a database of newly added words to Czech diction, shows a range of new greetings or farewell phrases have entered the lexicon.

According to iDnes.cz, “páček,” “páčulínek,” and “papík,” have all recently begun to be used as a way to say goodbye, deriving from the Czech farewell of “papa.” “Čauzr” has been formed from the Czech “čau” greeting and Czechs have used their adoption of the German “tschüss” (meaning goodbye) to create “čusik.”

"Zdárek párek" has also recently been created from "nazdar," to the amusement of Czech school kids.

Nowadays, Šemelík says there is a tendency to write “Dobrý den” (Good day) in correspondence rather than the traditional "Vážení“ (Dear esteemed). In some cases, a greeting is omitted altogether. 

A similar informality has begun to apply to greetings in person. Greeting a stranger or someone with whom you are not too familiar with a causal “Ahoj” is something that 100 years ago would have been deemed inappropriate, though Šemelík infers that today this is deemed more universal and acceptable.

For English speakers left in doubt about the correct way to greet a Czech, this international initiative tells us it's completely ok to just #sayhi.