I was always wondering: When at the end of the phone or other conversation people say "ну давай" meaning "see you later". Where does this come from?
In terms of meaning, I always understood it to mean "давай уже сколько можно болтать, потом поговорим", but I am not sure of the true origins.
It's one of those things where I understand when and how to use the phrase but am completely unsure where it comes from.
You are actually asking a very, very interesting question. I believe that, among others, exactly such questions should be explored by modern linguists. As far as I know, nobody knows for sure, when and how exactly this form came to usage.
I can only list here all common hypotheses, but it is important to understand that none of them is scientific, i.e. proved by any kind of statistical data. To be more exigent, such estimates can be listed as examples of so-called "folk etymology"
давай прощаться. давай руку, but I have strong doubts about this. As opposed to давай лапу, it is less common in Russian to say something like this to human.давай пять. I wonder why in that case the final form is not "Дай", since actually it is way more common to say дай пять, not давай.давай by itself is used as a motivation ("давай, сделай это!", "давай, Вася!!!"), so давай can be a shortened form of давай пока and/or famous Давай, до свидания. The most funny part of this is that пока actually is also a relatively new form of farewell. Korney Chukovsky wrote: "Помню, как страшно я был возмущен, когда молодые люди, словно сговорившись друг с другом, стали вместо до свиданья говорить почему-то пока."
давай-давай is used to ask somebody to act quicker. By analogy with пока-пока one can used давай-давай for saying goodbye when he/she is in a hurry: "Давай-давай, Оль, я побежала уже на работу". And the shortened form "давай" had been used in same meaning: "Давай, мне пора".Also, I don't know why, but, to my knowledge, the word давай with this meaning is one of the most popular Russian word among non-native speakers. Moreover, it is quite popular among those who even don't know Russian. I've encountered this usage in Сentral Asia, in the Caucasus and among Estonians and Lithuanian people. The second such word is вообще :)
давай пока to давай руку/пять or to some kind of modal usage, "let's farewall".
Commented
Sep 28, 2017 at 18:39
It is a very interesting question indeed.
The answer by shabunc is also very good. For example, I did not know that "Пока" was introduced at Korney Chukovsky's time - the beginning of the 20th century. I thought it always existed :-). And I did not know also about his attitude to the introduction of this word then.
I remember when "давай" instead of "до свидания" or "пока" was introduced. It was at the end of 1970s - beginning of 80s. I remember how I myself started to use it. My understanding of its meaning was bullet number 4 in shabunc's list, i.e. motivational.
The problem with more formal expressions of goodbye like "прощай" (almost never used), "до свидания", "счастливо", and even "пока" is that they have too much pathos for certain situations. When you part with a good friend casually, you do not want to show too much senses but at the same time you want to finish your conversation on a positive note. Something like wishing him/her good luck but without too much pathos. Here "давай" comes into play with a hand wave for example. Давай goes (to my mind, at least that is what I was thinking when I was using it) as shortening of "давай, будь здоров", "давай, наслаждайся жизнью", "давай, делай что задумал", or if I may mix Russian and English "давай, continue with your life".
The fact is that давай in motivational meaning (used as a soft motivation in Russian) conveys some positive attitude to the person who it is addressed to. Something like "I believe you can do it."
When I used/use it personally I do not think about "давай прощаться", "давай руку", "давай пять" or "давай-давай". But it is just me. :-)
до свидания never feels out of date in a more formal setting, it appears like 1910s-30s in a colloquial use to me (I might be wrong), счастливо is 60s-70s, пока is like 70s-90s, and some juvenile slangs, including давай пока and spreading to я в офф are modern usage. Here is an example from 1965: karaoke.ru/artists/vizbor-yurij/text/serega-sanin
Commented
Sep 28, 2017 at 18:43
In addition, in this case I think, 'давай' - is a sort of "junk word" (слово-паразит).
- давай, до завтра.
- ну давай, пока!
- давай, до встречи!
- ну давай, увидимся.
or short:
- (ну) давай!
Not everyone likes this figure of speech, in response you can get a joke:
- давай!
- не дам!
As a native speaker, I believe this means "давай прощаться", "давай" is often used in Russian in the meaning Let's + any verb. You can use "давай" actually with all verbs to suggest doing something. Examples: Давай поцелуемся. Давай останемся. Давай посмотрим... I hope I helped :)
A very good question indeed. I have been pondering this for a while too and conclude that the origin lies in an old Russian tradition of drinking, specifically toasting. It is equivalent to a parting exclamation of "Cheers!". Everybody is familiar with a common toast "Давай (выпьем) за..." as in Let's drink to...A common one is "Давай за здоровье "may we all be healthy" akin to "Cheers." I have been a part of many a heated convesation that ended with a peace-maiking, amicable "Ну ладно, давай за..."(Well, okay, let's drink to...) With time it shortened to "Ну...давай," or simply "давай!" Eventually, it became a positive parting greeting. Incidentally, a lot of my male friends end conversations with "Ну...давай" whereas I can not think of any female friend who does. Coincidence? Well, maybe. "Ну...давай"
It is really a very interesing question. And there were many interesting answers :-) but, I guess, I've got one more, a little bit different.
Давай is a word, that combines two meanings. One one hand, it connotates with бывай (будь здоров). On the other, it means давай иди уже, the time for conversation is over. At the same time.
So, as a result, we have something about "Be OK, I'm glad to meet you, but it's time to stop that" in one word. I have NOT any scientific proofs, it's just my feeling of language.
(Yes, yes, native russian with catastrophic lack of practice in English, sorry for bad one).
I believe this meant for ending a discussion in the course of which the sides had reached an agreement about any actions in the future. Thus the word could initially be a sign that the agreement remains in force even if other topics were discussed after it, because otherwise the later discussion could create an impression that the agreement idea is abandoned or not that important.
-- Ну давай тогда, будем действовать как договорились.
-- Хорошо, давай, до свидания тогда.
-- Давай встретимся на той неделе, обсудим наши результаты.
-- Ну давай тогда, до встречи.
-- Давай действуй, нечего тут базарить, время терять!
-- Хорошо, сделаю, как вы сказали.
I suppose that it's just a shortening for «давай прощаться» или «давай закругляться».
давайin meaningдо свидания. But consider it as informal and probably sometimes at the edge of rudeness.