 The Oxford English Dictionary recorded the earliest uses of one the phrase 's variants — " have a good day " — as being " <unk> alle <unk> <unk> " in Layamon 's Brut ( c . 1205 ) and " <unk> , have wel <unk> 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 <unk> <unk> every man the <unk> way , there was <unk> but ' Fare wel , have a good day ' " . <unk> employed by Chaucer in his literary works , " have a good day " disappeared for several centuries before its revival . 
