
Originally Posted by
Djoron
The word means "health".
And it probably originated in the middle ages with the plague and stuff, where sneezing was a really bad thing that scared people, so they said it preemptively to be protected from all evil that could come from it.
It kinda stay as a polite thing to do and lately people who care about such stuff argue if it is still polite to say it or if you shouldn't just ignore it when someone sneezes.
Afaik the latest stand was that it's kay in like a smaller group and such, but kinda ridiculous when your whole office yells it each time someone sneezes.