 The Oxford English Dictionary recorded the earliest uses of one the phrase 's variants — " have a good day " — as being " Habbeð alle godne dæie " in Layamon 's Brut ( c . 1205 ) and " Rymenhild , have wel godne day " in King Horn ( 1225 ) . According to Roland Dickison of California State University , " have a good day " first appeared in Geoffrey Chaucer 's 1387 The Canterbury Tales : " And hoom wente every man the righte way , there was namoore but ' Fare wel , have a good day ' " . Routinely employed by Chaucer in his literary works , " have a good day " disappeared for several centuries before its revival . 
