bless you
- 1A courteous response offered to someone immediately after they sneeze.
Someone sneezed in the back row, and half the room murmured, "Bless you."
"Bless you!" "Thanks, it's the pollen. It gets me every spring."
Similargesundheit
Note
Behind the courtesy sits the short prayer, God bless you cut down to two words, but after a sneeze it works as plain good manners, and the usual reply is thank you. Gesundheit does the same job, with a borrowed word in place of the blessing.
- 2Said jokingly to someone who has just used an unusual or foreign word or phrase, treating it as a sneeze to show it meant nothing to the listener.
"The word you're looking for is schadenfreude." "Bless you," Dan replied, deadpan.
When the chef announced that dessert was a kouign-amann, someone at the table said, "Bless you."
Note
The joke pretends the strange word was a sneeze, so it lands best right after something foreign or hard to say. Rowling gives it to Ron in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000): Hermione names the bouillabaisse, and Ron answers Bless you. Said deadpan, it teases the word, and sometimes whoever chose it, without real rudeness.
Less common meaning
- 3Short for (may) God bless you: said as a short prayer for the recipient.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of bless you apart? Answer 4 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.