A literal translation now accepted in English.
The phrase was first recorded in American English in the late 19th century. It appeared in W.F. Drannan's 'Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains' (1900), attributed to an Indigenous American. However, its close correspondence to the Chinese idiom suggests a likely origin from Chinese immigrants in the US.
This phrase is a loan translation from the Mandarin Chinese phrase 'hǎojiǔ bùjiàn' (好久不见). It is used as a greeting by people who have not seen each other for a long period of time. While initially considered grammatically incorrect, it has become widely accepted in standard English, especially in spoken language.
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