Merriam-Webster's idea of "So Long" - an expression of farewell, a colloquialism that we take for granted as being a logical construction. It'll only be so long before you meet again, right?
That sentence doesn't seem like a sentence to me. But then it turns out that So Long's origin is mysterious.
According To Merriam-Webster, it doesn't appear to have clear origins in Irish, German, Hebrew, Arabic - as there is no provable connection between those to the English expression.
Walt Whitman's poem entitled "So long!" published in 1860 gives it American placement. But even his friends were wondering what he was writing about, asking him to define the expression. He called it "[a] salutation of departure, greatly used among sailors, sports, & prostitutes—the sense of it is till we meet again—conveying an inference somewhere, some how [sic] they will doubtless so meet—sooner or later."
There aren't any "So Long" jokes that match our Goodbye colloquialism. Here's a Goodbye joke.
A bear prepares a list of all the animals he's planning to eat.
All the animals find out about the list and are extremely frightened. The deer walks up to the bear and asks "Bear, am I on your list?" "Of course you are." Replies the bear. "Can you do me just one favor and let me live another day so that I can say goodbye to all my loved ones?" The bear agrees, waits a day and eats the deer. The wolf goes up to the bear and asks "Am I on your list?" "Yes you are." "Please just give me one day to say goodbye to my family." The bear agrees and because he has honor he waits a day before eating the wolf. The bunny finds the bear and asks him "Bear am I on your list?" "You are." "Well could you take me off the list?" "You got it." replies the bear.
This is my Witch hazel a few years ago at the end of March - clearly a snow storm day. Let's hope this picture is the only snow we'll see between now and next November. It would be our "So Long" to snow.
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