Is 'godspeed' a religious term? (Can it be used without invoking religiosity nowadays?) [closed]

There is an Urban Dictionary entry saying

Of Old English origin, shortening of "Good Speed," and contrary to popular belief has nothing to do with God. People would say this to others who were leaving on a long and perilous journey, wishing them success, but more importantly wishing for their return.

Edited: Can it be used without invoking any nuance of religiosity ?

Well guys, I did check the references and did find the explanations which ended up becoming the answer for the question. What I meant was to get an educated opinion on the usage of the term in modern times.

How a question with so many votes gets put on hold is beyond me.

Solution 1:

"God speed you" is an example of a term with religious origins. Whether that makes it a "religious term" depends on what your definition of a "religious term" is. It's pretty archaic now.

Perhaps surprisingly, it's not (originally) wishing "speed" to the person - it's from the old English word "spede" which means "success" (and from which "speed" is derived). So it's saying "May god give success to you".

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Godspeed

There are several phrases in common usage which have religious origins - often they now exist in a contracted form which isn't obviously recognisable as religious. For example, "goodbye", which is a contracted form of "God be with you".

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/goodbye#English

I think that most people wouldn't say that "goodbye" is a "religious term" (again, dependent on whatever that actually means), despite its religious origins. Because "god speed you" clearly contains the word "god", it's more likely to be described as religious, I would say.