The expression ‘good day’ has been around for a very long time, well over 500 years. Although it is most well known as a greeting, to mean ‘hello’, it is also used as a way to say farewell. Nowadays, we would say ‘Have a good day’.

During the late 19th century in Australia, the two words in this expression, ‘good’ and ‘day’, were joined to form the contraction g’day. This word is quite often followed by another word, ‘mate’, which means friend.

G’day, mate.  =  Hello, friend.

This common greeting can be used whether the person knows the other person or not. I think that’s why Aussies are thought of as friendly people. They’ll greet strangers in the same way they greet friends. G’day can be used at any time of day and Aussies use it frequently.

Although g’day has been around for a long time, it’s thanks to Australian actor and comedian Paul Hogan, and a series of tourism ads he did in the 1980s, that it became prominent internationally.

As with most Aussie slang, correct pronunciation is really important. G’day is pronounced /ɡəˈdeɪ/ with the stress on the second syllable.

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Glossary

globally – across the whole world

well over – much more than

farewell [old-fashioned or formal] – goodbye

19th century – the period of time from 1801 to 1900

contraction – a short form of a word or combination of words that is often used instead of the full form in spoken English

stranger – someone you do not know

frequently – often

tourism – the business of providing services for tourists, including organising their travel, hotels, entertainment, etc.

ad (abbreviation of advertisement) – a picture, short film, song etc that tries to persuade people to buy a product or service

prominent – very well known and important

syllable – a single unit of speech, either a whole word or one of the parts into which a word can be separated, usually containing a vowel