the.com/sendoff
The last goodbye dressed up as a party, where leaving becomes the main event.
means A celebratory or heartfelt farewell given to someone who is departing — a party, gathering, or gesture marking a leaving.
from A straightforward English compound of the phrasal verb 'send off' — to dispatch someone on their way — bundled into a noun in the 19th century. The 'off' carries the sense of departure, motion away, the same 'off' you hear in 'set off' or 'see someone off,' so a sendoff is literally the act of sending someone off, frozen into a single word.
- naval origin
- Sailors got cannon salutes and ringing bells departing port
- viking style
- Some chiefs sent off in burning ships at sea
- jazz funerals
- New Orleans sends the dead off dancing through streets
- word age
- Coined around 1870s American English from send off
- rocket version
- Countdowns are literally engineered, theatrical sendoffs
apollo 11 sendoff — kennedy space center launch of neil armstrong, buzz aldrin, and michael collins on july 20, 1969
titanic sendoff — maiden voyage departure from southampton on april 10, 1912 with 2,224 passengers and crew