Bryan Garner's Usage Tip: adieu

Your daily usage tip hot off the press.

Smarter words.
(From the new 5th edition of Garner's Modern English Usage.)

adieu

adieu /a-dyoo/ or /ә-dyoo/ (= farewell) for ado /ә-doo/ (= fuss, trouble) is a surprisingly common error—e.g.:

“If Teevens’ 1992 and 1993 Green Wave teams . . . are the only measuring stick, then it’s much adieu [read ado] about nothing.” Dave Lagarde, “Bigger and Stronger, But Is Wave Better?,” Times-Picayune (New Orleans), 18 Aug. 1994, at D1.
“So without further adieu [read ado], here’s an early-week primer for this 60th annual event.” John Lindsay, “The Road to San Antonio,” Cincinnati Post, 11 Mar. 1998, at D8.
“She can now go to the races without adieu [read ado] and could easily rack up win number one.” Shayne O’Cass, “Gai to Fire Up,” Sportsman (Aus.), 2 May 2006, at 2.

Sometimes a pun is clearly intended. For example, when a football (soccer) player left a U.K. team, the Newcastle Journal highlighted his departure with an article titled “Much Adieu About Nothing for Henry” (18 July 2016, at 48). Clever.

The opposite error—ado for adieu—is exceedingly rare.

The anglicized plural adieus has been standard since the early 1700s. Adieux is a much more recent GALLICISM.

LANGUAGE-CHANGE INDEX

adieu misused for ado: Stage 1

Current ratio in print (without further ado

vs. *without further adieu): 96:1
Current ratio in print (adieus vs. adieux): 1:1.4

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