The expression grüß GottGod bless is a greeting, less often a farewell, in Southern Germany and Austria. The greeting was promoted in the 19th century by the Catholic clergy and along with its variants has long been the most common greeting in Southern Germany and Austria. It is almost always misunderstood by speakers from other regions to mean the imperative greet God and therefore often receives a sarcastic response from Northern Germans such as "If I see Him" or "Hopefully not too soon". Grüß Gott is however the shortened form of both grüße dich Gott and its plural grüße euch Gott. In addition, in Middle High German, the verb grüßen used to mean not only 'to greet' but also 'to bless', so the greeting in fact preserves the original meaning 'God bless you', though even speakers in Southern Germany and Austria are only very rarely aware of this and think it means 'may God greet you'. Such a religious expression in a greeting only exists in a few countries. For example, people wish one another a simple 'good day' in Poland, Spain, and Portugal, while in Irish the popular greeting is Dia dhuit, similar to the English goodbye, a contraction of God be with ye; today, goodbye has a less obviously religious meaning. Also similar to the Catalan formal expressionadéu-siau. A religious origin is still obvious in French adieu, Spanish adiós, Italian addio, Portuguese adeus, and Catalan adéu. In Finland, a religious group named Laestadians uses the form "Jumalan terve". Like many other greetings, grüß Gott can range in meaning from deeply emotional to casual or perfunctory. The greeting's pronunciation varies with the region, with, for example, grüß dich sometimes shortened to grüß di. In Bavaria and Austria griaß di and griaß eich are commonly heard, although their Standard German equivalents are not uncommon either. A common farewell analogous to grüß Gott is pfiat' di Gott, a contraction of "behüte dich Gott", which itself is not common at all. This is likewise shortened this to pfiat' di/eich or, if the person is addressed formally pfia Gott in Altbayern, Austria, and South Tyrol. In its standard German form, grüß Gott is mostly stressed on the second word and in many places is used not only in everyday life, but is also common in the official communications of the aforementioned states. Use of the greeting guten Tag is less prevalent, but there are those who dislike grüß Gott on account of its religious nature. In Bavaria, guten Tag is considered prim and distant and sometimes leads to misunderstandings; however, if the person addressed is from Northern Germany, they may see it as a friendly gesture. In Slovakia, literal slovak translation of grüß Gott, Zdar Boh! is used as the traditional greeting of miners. Inscription Zdar Boh! can be seen on many mine entrances, monuments or logos.
