Idiom idiom
good evening
Meaning
A polite greeting you use when you meet someone in the evening.
Examples
“Good evening, how are you today?”
“When the host opened the door, he smiled and said, good evening to all his guests.”
“As the sun dipped below the horizon, the shopkeeper offered a polite good evening to the last customer leaving his store.”
Origin
From the ellipsis of a longer formal salutation, likely *I wish you a good evening*, used upon meeting or departing. The full phrase appears in late Middle English, though the contracted greeting has functioned as a standalone social convention for several centuries.
Last updated June 7, 2026