Well Met?

[Pleater]

There is a 'I'm glad I bumped into you' component in "Well met" implying that the speaker has something afoot and that the one greeted would make the enterprise all the more enjoyable.

I think it is fairly English.

In Yorkshire the most common greeting is 'Ey up' - a contraction of 'heads up' - the carter or carrier's instruction to his beasts to lift their heads from grazing is the source, I think. There is the implication of 'take notice and gather your wits' in that one.

Anne the Pleater

[Mike_Oettle]

Jock Scot wrote: “Oh, I would not be the least bit surprised that ‘well met’ or variations of it originated in the UK. However, just to write or say ‘well met’ is not a usual greeting in the UK, these days.”

Jock, I did not imagine that it was current in the UK nowadays. It can be compared (to use a far more modern example) with the expression robot, meaning traffic light. Britons coming to South Africa regard it as an extreme oddity that has never been heard in the old country, but in fact it was in common use in Britain before the Second World War, and came to South Africa in that period.
Similarly the word bioscope (technically the registered brand name of a particular early method of displaying moving pictures, Bioscope) is still today a common usage in South Africa meaning cinema (or as our American brethren put it, movie theater). (However bioscope is not part of my everyday usage.)
Regards,
Mike

[plaid preacher]

There is a term still used by my family, it being, "fort-wit". It means right away. I'm sure it is derived from "forth with."

Another term that baffles many non relatives is, "toot-sweet." That also means right away. I can only guess it began as, "to (short for toward) swift."

The first phrase in context, is soon rather than later, the second requires running.

Tarheel... toot-sweet actually is french tout de suite and does indeed mean right away.

As for "outwith" I think such expressions are commonly used in places where identity is important. I am born and raised on Prince Edward Island and down home the phrase "from away" is a common description for people who were not born there. Not as elegant as "outwith" but it communicates the same sentiment.

[rlloyd]

here in Upper East Tennessee, I've heard "well met" used all my life. Not as a greeting between people which know one another, of course, but for when you've...just met.

[MacGumerait]

I have to admit that until I was member of this forum , I wasn't familiar with " Well Met " used as a greeting .

I am familiar with the phrase , however , I have always been accustomed to it being used as a compliment similar to " Well Done " .

For example ... if one was to meet a challenge or task and succeed , the response would be " Well Met " .

As the old saying goes ... we learn something new every day .

[Dale-of-Cedars]

Does someone in "Midsummer Night's Dream" say "Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania"?, implying that he was not happy to meet her. "Well met" would imply the opposite - i.e. happy to meet you.

My first occasion encountering 'ill met' was Ill Met in Lankhmar, a sword and sorcery novella by Fritz Leiber (the child of two Shakespearean actors, so he probably heard it often.)

[Dileasgubas]

Sorry, comes from French "tout de suite" meaning literally "all - tout + de suite - following after", or colloquially, "immediately".

[Profane James]

I like it...I immediately thought of Roland Deschain...

[Nile]

I have to admit that until I was member of this forum , I wasn't familiar with " Well Met " used as a greeting .

I am familiar with the phrase , however , I have always been accustomed to it being used as a compliment similar to " Well Done " .

For example ... if one was to meet a challenge or task and succeed , the response would be " Well Met " .

As the old saying goes ... we learn something new every day .

I too, am familiar with this phrase but, primarily from my youth and not necessarily as a greeting. Whenever I was dressed in my Sunday best as a youth and our family visited an aunt and uncle of my dad's, my uncle would often say, "Well met, young man, well met!" which I took to mean that the way I was dressed met his standards.

Nile

[bodhran4me]

Isn't the term used in the historical novels by Nigel Tranter ?