Learn a new word every day. Fowler’s has it that “hallo” is first recorded “as a shout to call attention” in 1864. The word hullo is still in use, with the meaning hello. By 1889, central telephone exchange operators were known as “hello-girls” because of the association between the greeting and the telephone.

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Ultimately from a variant of Old English ēalā, such as hēlā, which was used colloquially at the time similarly to how hey and (in some dialects) hi are used nowadays. This variant of hallo is often credited to Thomas Edison as a coinage for telephone use, but its appearance in print predates the invention of the telephone by several decades. Hello is alternatively thought to come from the word hallo (1840) via hollo (also holla, holloa, halloo, halloa). According to one account, halloo was the first word Edison yelled into his strip phonograph when he discovered recorded sound in 1877.

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• According to the American Heritage Dictionary, hallo is a modification of the obsolete holla (stop!), perhaps from Old French hola (ho, ho! + la, there, from Latin illac, that way).
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• Hello (first attested in 1826), from holla, hollo (attested 1588).

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Hello as used as an everyday greeting is recorded since at least the 1850s. We use hello several times a day to greet people or attract attention. But had the actual inventor cocksucker of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell, had his way, our greetings might be very different today. It was simpler and more efficient than some other greetings used in the early days of the telephone, such as “Do I get you?

Example queries I can run are “Which words in English are borrowed from French?”, “Which words were first used by Charles Dickens?” or “How are words added to the dictionary?”. It may be true that OK is the most spoken word on the planet, but hello is a good candidate for the English word that most people learn first. OED and Merriam-Webster also suggested that it is a variant of holla, a variant of holloo. To add hello to a word list please sign up or log in.

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As part of this exciting release, fans who purchase tickets for the Rams’ January home game against the Arizona Cardinals at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, CA—currently scheduled for Saturday, January 3 or Sunday, January 4—through the dedicated link will receive a limited-edition Hello Kitty x Rams clear bag and coin purse while supplies last. As for the upbeat greeting howdy, it was first recorded as a contraction of “how do you do” in 1632. Essentially, these are all terms used to call attention—they’re short and easy to say—that evolved into the greetings we use today. This spelling is considered an Americanism, while hullo is a variant that is more commonly seen in Great Britain. For example, the word hallo demanded that the listener come to a stop or cease what he or she was doing.

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Sign up to receive the Oxford English Dictionary Word of the Day email every day. If you are interested in looking up a particular word, the best way to do that is to use the search box at the top of every OED page. Here you can find a series of commentaries on the History of English, charting the history of the English language from Old English to the present day.

• A 1918 novel uses the spelling “Halloa” in the context of telephone conversations.
• The word was extensively used in literature by the 1860s.
• Shortly after Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, he answered calls by saying “ahoy ahoy”, borrowing the term used on ships.

A greeting (salutation) said when meeting someone or acknowledging someone’s arrival or presence. Hello (first attested in 1826), from holla, hollo (attested 1588). It has been used since the earliest programs, and in many computer languages. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, hallo is a modification of the obsolete holla (stop!), perhaps from Old French hola (ho, ho! + la, there, from Latin illac, that way). In many Germanic languages, including German, Danish, Norwegian, Dutch and Afrikaans, “hallo” directly translates into English as “hello”.

And the good south wind still blew behind,But no sweet bird did follow, Nor any day for food or play A 1918 novel uses the spelling “Halloa” in the context of telephone conversations. The first name tags to include Hello may have been in 1880 at Niagara Falls, which was the site of the first telephone operators convention. Shortly after Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, he answered calls by saying “ahoy ahoy”, borrowing the term used on ships. The word was extensively used in literature by the 1860s. Hello is a salutation or greeting in the English language.

In previous decades, hullo had been used as an exclamation of surprise (used early on by Charles Dickens in 1850) and halloo was shouted at ferry boat operators by people who wanted to catch a ride. Thomas Edison is credited with popularizing hullo as a telephone greeting. While Bronwyn was looking forward to “seeing all the photos” after Saturday’s event, there was one thing she was even more excited about. When it came to making her debut on Saturday, Bronwyn recalled meeting the other debutantes just before the event.

Explore our World Englishes hub and access our resources on the varieties of English spoken throughout the world by people of diverse cultural backgrounds. Access our word lists and commentaries on an array of fascinating topics, from film-based coinages to Tex-Mex terms. Read our collection of word stories detailing the etymology and semantic development of a wide range of words, including ‘dungarees’, ‘codswallop’, and ‘witch’. An unsurpassed guide for researchers in any discipline to the meaning, history, and usage of over 500,000 words and phrases across the English-speaking world. Hello obviously caught on, and spread along with the telephone.

So when you greet someone, you now know that you can choose from the modern-day equivalent of “Ahoy, there! In fact, it was recorded a lot earlier than hello. A more modern use of the word hello calls into question the common sense or comprehension of the person being addressed. While use of the term hello dates back earlier, it isn’t recorded with this exact spelling until the 1800s. But as prevalent as the word is, it is relatively new.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, hello is an alteration of hallo, hollo, which came from Old High German “halâ, holâ, emphatic imperative of halôn, holôn to fetch, used especially in hailing a ferryman”. Wednesday actress Catherine Zeta-Jones and her husband Michael Douglas posed in loved-up snaps in their relatable kitchen this week Shop the best Christmas jumpers for kids 2025, from the sweet designs to the novelty festive jumpers for children that they’ll love The head coach for the Portland Trail Blazers was arrested on Thursday in connection to a probe into a gambling case tied to the Mafia Get the Word of the Day every day!

“I’ve been watching what I eat and working out every day just for this,” she said. Last year’s event included Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin’s daughter, Apple Martin. “I also recognized some of the girls who did it years prior and knew if they were doing it, it was a great event.” “I love fashion and feeling like a princess, and this seemed like something I would love,” Bronwyn told Hello! Magazine, published on Saturday, November 29, Bassett, 67, admitted Bronwyn’s involvement “felt a little out of the blue initially.”