สวัสดี
hello
Meanings
every sense kept, sourced — never inventedused to express a greeting or farewell, answer a telephone, or attract attentionwiktionary
used to express a good wish or blessingwiktionary
welfare; well-being; prosperity; success; security; safety; goodness; virtue; moral excellencecurated
to greet or bid farewell by using this interjectionwiktionary
Built from
Borrowed from Sanskrit स्वस्ति (svasti, “welfare, well-being; blessing; prosperity; success; etc”); probably via Old Khmer svasti, svāsti (“interjection used as opening benediction: well-being! good fortune!”). Cognate with Northern Thai ᩈ᩠ᩅᩢᩔ᩠ᨯᩦ, Modern Khmer សួស្តី (suəsdəy). Compare Pali sotthi, from which Thai โสตถิ is derived. The use of this term as a greeting or farewell was initiated at the Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University, by Phraya Uppakit Sinlapasan (Nim Kanchanachiwa) in 2476 BE (1933/34 CE), and was officially ordained by the nationalist government of Field Marshall Plaek Phibunsongkhram on 22 January 2486 BE (1944 CE).