I heard this phrase from some Chinese-speaking stranger. I assume it's related to farewell since the stranger was waving hand to someone else, but what does it mean exactly? Is there a certain context in which this phrase is used?
Also, is this a dialect? It looks different from the Chinese I have learnt.
拜了个拜 derives from 拜拜 by treating the first 拜 as a verb and the second 拜 as the object of the first 拜 and then adopting the verb+(quantity)个+object pattern.
拜拜 is just a loan word from English bye-bye and mean the same thing.
拜了个拜 is just a novel usage of the word.
"拜拜" comes from the English word "bye-bye".
"拜了个拜" is actually a joking form of "拜拜", which actually isn't "correct" in Chinese grammar.
This expression got popular from a Chinese translation for a sentence in Japanese comeday animiation (日和动漫).
The guy tried translating a sentence into "不是吧！" (This must be kidding me!). But he found it doesn't fit the lips movement in the animation, so he added 2 syllables, and makes "不了个是吧！". "了个" here doesn't have any meaning.
What is interesting, there is a English phrase "bye-and-bye" that fits it perfectly.
Well, it can simply translated into "Had a goodbye".
Some other examples: "冲/洗了个藻" -> "Had a shower/bath" "洗了洗手" -> "Had a hand washing", "睡了个觉" -> "Had a sleep", "吃了个饭" "Had a meal".
Nah, I don't think it's a dialect, more like to be an oral expression, very uncommon in written language, this kind of expression usually come with an attitude of not a big deal, and most likely he/she is in a good mood or at least not bad.
"拜了个拜" has the almost same meaning with "拜拜"(bye-bye), and the word "了个" in it is just to make it sounds funny, not "had a", though in normal cases it's indeed translated into "had a".
...This pattern is now popular in Chinese slang.
Some times my dad would say so and I thought it was created by him. 拜了个拜 means byebye but more informalitly and smart. （I actually thought only my family would say this word）
