Well wishes ?

Two of my American friends wrote to me recently:

Thank you for the well wishes!” and
"Thanks for your well-wishes.”

Is ‘well’ being used in such contexts?

yes. Strictly speaking well-wishes should by hyphenated, though hyphens are often omitted nowadays.

***** NOT A TEACHER *****

Hello, Anglophile:

Thank you for teaching me this phrase.

In my 76 years of speaking, hearing, and reading only English, I had never heard of that phrase until you posted it.

Of course, I had heard of “Thank you for your GOOD wishes” or “Thank you for wishing me WELL.” But never: “Thank you for your WELL wishes.”

So I went to Professor Google, and I found an interesting forum discussion. Some posters were, indeed, familiar with it; others were not. Some thought it was confined to certain areas of England or the United States. When you have time, please google:

Linguaphiles: “Well wishes” July 29, 2012.

Thank you for the well-wishes / Thank you for wishing me well.

  • I’m not in ‘certain areas of England or the United States’.

But, James, we often use ‘well-wisher’ in speech and writing here. So, logically speaking, ‘well-wishes’ (hyphenated) should also be acceptable. I heard this for the first time from my friends who are in Georgia (GA) and Massachusetts (MA). I’ll also ask my son (in California now) about it.

I’ve already explained that ‘well-wishes’ is acceptable, as is ‘well-wisher’.

Thank you again, Anglophile and Beeesneees, for teaching me this. (Although I personally am too old to incorporate it into my vocabulary. It sounds too strange to my ears.) One always learns something new at this helpline because of mentors such as you two great people.

James