''Hello'' is a
salutation
A salutation is a greeting used in a letter or other communication. Salutations can be formal or informal. The most common form of salutation in an English letter is wed by the recipient's given name or title. For each style of salutation there ...
or
greeting
Greeting is an act of communication in which human beings intentionally make their presence known to each other, to show attention to, and to suggest a type of relationship (usually cordial) or social status (formal or informal) between indiv ...
in the
English language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...
. It is first attested in writing from 1826.
Early uses
''Hello'', with that spelling, was used in publications in the U.S. as early as the 18 October 1826 edition of the ''
Norwich Courier
This is a list of newspapers in Connecticut.
Daily newspapers (currently published)
:''This is a list of daily newspapers currently published in Connecticut. For weekly and university newspapers, see List of newspapers in Connecticut''.
* '' C ...
'' of
Norwich, Connecticut.
Another early use was an 1833 American book called ''The Sketches and Eccentricities of Col. David Crockett, of West Tennessee'', which was reprinted that same year in ''
The London Literary Gazette''. The word was extensively used in literature by the 1860s.
Etymology
According to the ''
Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a com ...
'', ''hello'' is an alteration of ''hallo'', ''hollo'',
which came from
Old High German
Old High German (OHG; german: Althochdeutsch (Ahd.)) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally covering the period from around 750 to 1050.
There is no standardised or supra-regional form of German at this period, and Old High ...
"''halâ'', ''holâ'', emphatic imperative of ''halôn'', ''holôn'' to fetch, used especially in hailing a ferryman". It also connects the development of ''hello'' to the influence of an earlier form, ''holla'', whose origin is in the French ''holà'' (roughly, 'whoa there!', from French ''là'' 'there'). As in addition to ''hello'', ''halloo'', ''hallo'', ''hollo'', ''hullo'' and (rarely) ''hillo'' also exist as variants or related words, the word can be spelt using any of all five vowels.
Telephone
The use of ''hello'' as a
telephone
A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into e ...
greeting has been credited to
Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventio ...
; according to one source, he expressed his surprise with a misheard ''Hullo''.
Alexander Graham Bell initially used ''
Ahoy'' (as used on ships) as a telephone greeting.
However, in 1877, Edison wrote to T. B. A. David, president of the Central District and Printing Telegraph Company of
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
:
By 1889, central telephone exchange operators were known as 'hello-girls' because of the association between the greeting and the telephone.
[
]
Hullo
''Hello'' might be derived from an older spelling variant, ''hullo'', which the American Merriam-Webster
Merriam-Webster, Inc. is an American company that publishes reference books and is especially known for its dictionaries. It is the oldest dictionary publisher in the United States.
In 1831, George and Charles Merriam founded the company as ...
dictionary describes as a "chiefly British variant of hello", and which was originally used as an exclamation to call attention, an expression of surprise, or a greeting. ''Hullo'' is found in publications as early as 1803. The word ''hullo'' is still in use, with the meaning ''hello''.
Hallo and hollo
''Hello'' is alternatively thought to come from the word ''hallo'' (1840) via ''hollo'' (also ''holla'', ''holloa'', ''halloo'', ''halloa''). The definition of ''hollo'' is to shout or an exclamation originally shouted in a hunt
Hunting is the human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/ hide, bone/tusks, horn/antler, e ...
when the quarry was spotted:
Fowler's
''A Dictionary of Modern English Usage'' (1926), by Henry Watson Fowler (1858–1933), is a style guide to British English usage, pronunciation, and writing. Covering topics such as plurals and literary technique, distinctions among like word ...
has it that "hallo" is first recorded "as a shout to call attention" in 1864.
It is used by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake ...
's famous poem ''The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
''The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'' (originally ''The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere'') is the longest major poem by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, written in 1797–1798 and published in 1798 in the first edition of ''Lyrical Ballad ...
'' written in 1798:
In many Germanic languages
The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in Europe, North America, Oceania and Southern Africa. The most widely spoken Germanic language, Engli ...
, including German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
, Danish
Danish may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark
People
* A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark
* Culture of Denmark
* Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...
, Norwegian
Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to:
*Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe
* Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway
* Demographics of Norway
*The Norwegian language, including ...
, Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
and Afrikaans
Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...
, "''hallo''" literally translates into English as "hello". In the case of Dutch, it was used as early as 1797 in a letter from Willem Bilderdijk
Willem Bilderdijk () (7 September 1756 – 18 December 1831) was a Dutch poet, historian, lawyer, and linguist.
Life
Willem Bilderdijk was born on 7 September 1756 in Amsterdam in the Dutch Republic.Joris van Eijnatten,Bilderdijk, W., ''Bio- en ...
to his sister-in-law as a remark of astonishment.
Webster's dictionary
''Webster's Dictionary'' is any of the English language dictionaries edited in the early 19th century by American lexicographer Noah Webster (1758–1843), as well as numerous related or unrelated dictionaries that have adopted the Webster's ...
from 1913 traces the etymology of ''holloa'' to the Old English ''halow'' and suggests: "Perhaps from ah + lo; compare Anglo Saxon ealā".
According to the ''American Heritage Dictionary
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, p ...
'', ''hallo'' is a modification of the obsolete ''holla'' (''stop!''), perhaps from Old French ''hola'' (''ho'', ho! + ''la'', there, from Latin ''illac'', that way).
The Old English verb, hǽlan (1. wv/t1b 1 to heal, cure, save; greet, salute; gehǽl! Hosanna!), may be the ultimate origin of the word. Hǽlan is likely a cognate of German Heil (meaning ''complete'' for things and ''healthy'' for beings) and other similar words of Germanic origin. Bill Bryson
William McGuire Bryson (; born 8 December 1951) is an American–British journalist and author. Bryson has written a number of nonfiction books on topics including travel, the English language, and science. Born in the United States, he has b ...
asserts in his book ''Mother Tongue'' that "hello" comes from Old English ''hál béo þu'' ("Hale be thou", or "whole be thou", meaning a wish for good health; cf.
The abbreviation ''cf.'' (short for the la, confer/conferatur, both meaning "compare") is used in writing to refer the reader to other material to make a comparison with the topic being discussed. Style guides recommend that ''cf.'' be used onl ...
"goodbye" which is a contraction of "God be with ye").
"Hello, World" computer program
Students learning a new computer programming language will often begin by writing a "Hello, World!" program, which does nothing but issue the message "Hello, world" to the user (such as by displaying it on a screen). It has been used since the earliest programs, in many computer languages. This tradition was further popularised after being printed in an introductory chapter of the book ''The C Programming Language
''The C Programming Language'' (sometimes termed ''K&R'', after its authors' initials) is a computer programming book written by Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie, the latter of whom originally designed and implemented the language, as well as ...
'' by Kernighan & Ritchie. The book had reused an example taken from a 1974 memo by Brian Kernighan
Brian Wilson Kernighan (; born 1942) is a Canadian computer scientist.
He worked at Bell Labs and contributed to the development of Unix alongside Unix creators Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie. Kernighan's name became widely known through co- ...
at Bell Laboratories
Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984),
then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996)
and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007),
is an American industrial research and scientific development company owned by mult ...
.
See also
* Aloha
*As-salamu alaykum
As-salamu alaykum ( ar, ٱلسَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ, , ), also ''Salamun Alaykum'' is a greeting in Arabic that means 'Peace be upon you'. The (, meaning 'peace') has become a religious salutation for Muslims worldwide when greet ...
* Ciao
*Kia ora
Kia ora (, approximated in English as or ) is a Māori-language greeting which has entered New Zealand English. It translates literally as "have life" or "be healthy", wishing the essence of life upon someone, from one speaker to the other ...
*Namaste
''Namaste'' (, Devanagari: नमस्ते), sometimes called ''namaskar'' and ''namaskaram'', is a customary Hindu non-contact manner of respectfully greeting and honouring a person or group, used at any time of day. It is found on the In ...
*Shalom
''Shalom'' ( he, שָׁלוֹם ''šālōm''; also spelled as ''sholom'', ''sholem'', ''sholoim'', ''shulem'') is a Hebrew word meaning ''peace'', ''harmony'', ''wholeness'', ''completeness'', ''prosperity'', ''welfare'' and ''tranquility'' and ...
* World Hello Day
References
External links
{{Wiktionary, hello, hi, hey, hiya
Hello in more than 800 languages
OED online entry for ''hollo''
(Subscription)
* Merriam-Webster Dictionary
hollo
hullo
Greeting words and phrases
English words