“go” on its own means rather/somewhat/quite (go iawn > somewhat ok), but I’m not sure about the lew bit - glew is brave/daring, but I don’t know if it comes from this (with a soft mutation) or from something else.
ha! Gruntius beat me to it 
3 Likes
The answer to ‘How do you do?’ is ‘How do you do?’ 
3 Likes
An ex-girlfriend years ago told me that she’d previously spent a year studying in the States. One rather trying day someone asked her “How’re you doing?” and she made the mistake of actually answering. Part way through her reply her interlocutor cut her off with something along the lines of, “Jeez, lady, I just asked how you’re doing, I didn’t want your life history.”
At around the same time there was, at my moderately posh, very white college, a friendly Jamaican graduate student, who always used to greet me with “What’s happening, man?” It took an embarrassingly long time before I realized I was supposed to just parse it as “Hello”…
2 Likes
Not “back in the day” . . .
1 Like
Another very confusing (to me!) greeting by someone I used to work with many years ago:“What do you know?” 
2 Likes
My old boss always greeted me with “So Steve, what do you know?” and I thought it odd. Come to think of it, he was Welsh.
I prefer “What ho!” as a greeting!
2 Likes
On the contrary, Sionned - I’m being old-fashioned here. It’s these days that people answer “How do you do?’ with 'Very well thank you”, making old-fashioned people like me prickle. 
Or was it all a dream…? 
1 Like
Yes - Bertie Wooster used to use that a lot, didn’t he?
Bertie: What-ho, old relative!
Aunt Agatha (indignantly): GOOD MORNING, Bertie!!
2 Likes
Hi @gisella-albertini 
It is my impression while reading these examples that Italians are genuinely asking how the other person is doing, and actually caring to hear a real answer back, rather than a superficial reply that has no connection to how they’re actually doing? That isn’t really what is happening in English a lot of the time, depending on the person and the relationship you have with them I guess… I don’t know if my impression is correct or not, but if so, I like your way better. 
2 Likes
Just struck me that the greeting “Watcha!”, which is still heard today, could be a contraction of “What do you know”
Reflecting on this, that would be nice, but I’m not too sure; probably the bigger difference is that (average) Italians just love…telling other people how they’re doing. 
The chattier types, even without being prompted! 
1 Like
Indeed! And Tom Ballard from Waiting for God:
“What ho, Diana!”
I’m hoping to revive it! Is there a Welsh form?
I’ve always taken that as “What (are) you (up to/doing/etc.)?” – Same assimilation of t+y to -ch- as in English ‘orchard’ from ‘hort(iculture)’ + ‘yard’. I’d have expected “What do you know?” to result in “Wodger!” but I could be wrong…
2 Likes
@Sionned, @garethrking
I was taught to answer “how do you do”, but now I decided to update my old school book with a better option. 
6 Likes
The jocular equivalent with the girls from Môn and Meirionnydd that I learnt my Welsh from all those centuries ago was:
Henffych!
Or indeed Henffychion! - which is even better because the vowel change makes it sound bordering on the (English) rude/insulting!
Let’s try and make it catch on…
5 Likes
Somebody once told me that ‘Hawddamor’ is going even further back, which I choose to a) believe and b) use as much as possible…
2 Likes
I have never said “how do you do” in my life and no one I can recall has ever said it to me either. Alright is common, but I would only ever answer that with “yeah OK”, if I was fleetingly passing someone in a corridor and didn’t have time to talk, which hardly ever happens.
I usually answer with “not too bad - are you alright”.
When someone says shw mae to me, I always kick myself afterwards when I automatically say shw mae back (and I aleays do) , because it seems to kill the conversation dead - it’s a closed answer when used like that to me.
Someone I know well said “innit” to me once as a greeting very odd I know, but she speaks Welsh and I’ve kicked myself since for not replying “ynde fe” - greetings can be quite variable in my world and hardly ever go to script.
1 Like
Ahoi-hoi pawb!
It’s said that Alexander Graham Bell’s preferred way to answer the phone was not “Hello” (which came afterwards) but “Ahoy-hoy” **
… and apparently Ahoy is derived from Dutch “hoi” meaning “hi”.
**this is why Mr Burns of The Simpsons says this when answering the phone.
3 Likes