What is the meaning of "Hello"

[bobrob]

Hi. Does anyone know the true and thorough history of the word Hello, in English? I’m wondering where it came from etc.

[brianmelendez]

Staff report: What’s the origin of “ahoy”?

Alexander Graham Bell suggested “ahoy!” as the standard telephone greeting, but it didn’t catch on–for obvious reasons, you may think. Don’t be so sure. Brooklyn College professor Allen Koenigsberg, author of The Patent History of the Phonograph, argues that the word that did catch on, “hello,” was previously unknown and may have been invented by the man who proposed it, Thomas Edison.

[Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker]

And some more info from the Word Detective:
http://www.word-detective.com/back-l2.html#hello

[drhess]

My dictionary says it used to be “hollo” but it doesn’t give any root or history. It does say it started in 1889. Hollo is dated to 1500s, but unkown origin. Was a shout in hunts apparently.

[bobrob]

So, before that time, when people greeted each other, what did they say? Did they say, “Hello?”

[sailor]

Hello is probably related to similar voices: Spanish hola, French holà, Germa hallo etc. They all seem to date back to the mid 16th century

[drhess]

In many langues they say Good day or How are you. I forget what the Russian word for greeting translates, too, but it is so damn long (starts with several consonants IIRC) people just shorten it to a slang version.

[Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker]

I think it means “Be well.”

[brianmelendez]

From Wordorigins:

Hello

This greeting is much newer than most people think. The use of hello as a greeting is only as old as the telephone. The first recorded use is from 1883.

It does, however, have earlier origins in other senses. It is a variant of hallo, which dates to 1840 and is a cry of surprise. That in turn is related to halloo, a cry to urge on hunting dogs. Halloo dates to about 1700, but a variant, aloo, appears in Shakespeare’s King Lear a century earlier than that.

And there is an even earlier variant, hollo, which dates to at least 1588 when Shakespeare used it in Titus Andronicus. There are also cognates in other Germanic languages.

Hello was not a shoo-in for the telephone greeting either. It competed with several other options, including Alexander Graham Bell’s suggestion of Ahoy, but pulled into an early lead and by the end of the 1880s was firmly ensconced.

[tonbo0422]

Hello is hello. But how on earth did it graduate to hi?

[MeanOldLady]

Or hey?

[DarrenS]

Or " 'sup " ?

[Johnny_L.A]

When I was a kid (too young to be allowed to answer the phone) I thought the correct greeting was “Moshi moshi”.

[green_bladder]

*Originally posted by Johnny L.A. *
**When I was a kid (too young to be allowed to answer the phone) I thought the correct greeting was “Moshi moshi”. **

It * is * correct in Japanese.

[TaxGuy]

In case anyone is wondering about hello in Russian it’s: (spelled phonetically) strosst-voo-eet-ya, with the emphasis on the first syllable. The slang version is strozzy.

[jjimm]

When answering the phone in Cantonese it’s “WAI???” and in Italian it’s “Pronto!”.

[bobrob]

So, prior to the 1800’s or so, what did people use as a greeting in English?

[stoyel]

Howdy.

[j_kat_251]

Good day.

[MeanOldLady]

G’day, govna!