My point was that you don’t usually hear “how are you?” by itself. It’s always “Hi. How are you?” If both are greetings, then one is superfluous, unless there’s extra meaning besides the greeting in one of them. Ergo it’s not just a greeting.
Sure, it still could be. The social ritual could be to say something like “Hi, how are you?” as a greeting and then for the other person to invariably respond something like “I’m fine, how are you?” in acnkowledgement, with “Fine. So, …” completing the greeting handshake and entering the conversation proper. Or maybe not; it’s a question of whatever the custom is. But there’s no linguistic rule saying that if an initial segment of a phrase is a greeting, then the phrase as a whole cannot be merely a greeting itself. The language game works however it works.
“Busier than a three-legged cat trying to cover shit”
or
“busier than a one-legged man in an ass kicking contest”
“How are you?/How ya doin’?”
“Yes.”
I sooooo miss Carlin.
I shall use ‘moderately neato’ tomorrow in honor of the dead guy. <3
I need to use this at work as well, as most folks greeting me do so at such times when I’m trying frantically to grow 3 extra arms, an extra head and a couple of legs in the attempt to do the 6 things at once often required. The looks on their faces <which I won’t see, as I’ll be too busy> will be priceless, but I will savor the possibilities. When I have time.
How am I … what?
Long, psychotic gaze
Two from dad (sorry if they’re repeats):
Better than most!
I’m not as good as I once was, but I’m as good once as I ever was!
Here’s how one of my former co-workers used to greet people:
What’s the dill, pickle? Everything kosher?
or
I’m blessed by the best, I must confess!
Course, it’s not the same without his intonations and so forth.
Them: How are you?
Me: Just Fucking Lovely!
Still Breathin’.
(I like to start with the basics.)
My favorite is “Livin’ the dream” accompanied by a rueful look.
I used to work with a guy who always responded with a cheery “Just Peachy!” One particularly grumpy day, I said “So, Peachy in April, that would be, small, green and bitter?”
From that day forward he was “Mandarin Orangey.”
“I’ve been worse.”
Usually it’s true.
I used to know a classy old gentleman who always had the same reply to “How are you:” “Very well, thank you. I hope you are.”
Of course there’s no rule. But there is generally a sort of logic to how these things develop. It may eventually become a pure greeting, but I don’t think it really has yet, as it still has some meaning beyond other greetings such as Hi or hello.
To me, it seems to be less of a greeting than a transition from a greeting into normal conversation. Greetings such as “hi”, “hello”, or “hey” are often used by themselves as merely acknowledging the existence of the other person. “Hi, how are you?” seems more often to be used as a way to start a conversation, while giving both sides an easy way to decline.
You know, I guess my confusion is because I wouldn’t call what you described above as merely a greeting. The whole thing may be my misunderstanding of a term.
My response is"it could go either way"
AI usually say “Above ground and working. Anything else is a bonus.”