To free someone or something from an unwanted or unpleasant person or thing. To clear away or eliminate something troublesome.
From Old English 'hryddan' meaning to clear land, related to Old Norse 'ryðja' meaning to clear. The word evolved from describing physical clearing of land to metaphorical clearing of problems or unwanted things.
The phrase 'good riddance' uses the noun form of rid, which is now archaic except in this expression. Interestingly, 'rid' is one of the few English verbs that commonly appears in the past participle form 'rid' rather than adding -ed, making 'I got rid of it' standard.
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