ciao
n.— «“All those who have chosen public safety as a career, corrections officers and police officers, your byword is “ciao,”” said the Rev. John S. Schiavone, adding the word is slang for “I am your servant.”…Gonzalez was remembered during eulogies…for beginning and ending every conversation with the word “ciao.”» —“Officers gather to mourn guard slain at Chino prison” by Paul Chavez Mercury News (San Jose, California) Jan. 18, 2005. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
In the 15th century, the word respair meant “to have hope again.” Although this word fell out of use, it’s among dozens collected in a new book of soothing vocabulary for troubled times. Plus, baseball slang: If a batter...
Asthenosphere, a geologist’s term for the molten layer beneath the earth’s crust, sparks a journey that stretches all the way from ancient Greece to the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Plus: What the heck is a dogberg? It’s when...