Want to make your Italian friends laugh? Want to astound your non-Italian friends with just how cutting edge and cool you are? Just replace "ciao" with "ciaone." The word is so stupid it's cute.
"Ciaone" (cha-OWN-eh) is obviously "ciao" with the -one suffix (expressing largeness) added. Sort of a "big bye!" Although "ciao" can be used for "hello" or "goodbye," the neologism "ciaone" is generally used only for "good-bye," and is usually ironic or facetious. There is also a variant, "ciaone proprio" (really ciaone) that almost means "good riddance" (an expression that doesn't exist in Italian.)
The new entry has attained the glory of being included in the venerable Treccani dictionary. There is also an article in the Italian version of Wired discussing the word's origin (there are many schools of thought on this weighty matter.)
Ciaone e buona estate!
