Hello

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For other uses, see Hello (disambiguation).

Template:Wiktionarypar Hello is a salutation or greeting in the English language and its meaning is synonymous with other similar sounding salutations such as "Hi" or "Hey". Hello is thought to have been first recorded at 1588.[1]. The earliest record of 'hollo', from which the word 'hello' derivates, is found in Andrew Boorde's 1542 book "A compendious regyment or a dyetary of helth". In the book, it is presented as 'holowynge'. Many different languages use an equivalent expression which sounds similar often either starting with an "h" or having a "l" sound. Examples would be Russian "алло" (pronounced as 'allo'), Spanish "hola", and Thai "haloo". It should be noted that if some of these languages imported the English word to use it as a greeting on attending the telephone, several others have their own specific origin for the word, as with Portuguese "olá" and Spanish "hola", both probably of Arabic origin, German "hallo" and Hungarian "hallom".

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Etymology

There are many different theories to the orgins of the word. It may be a contraction of archaic English "whole be thou". Template:Ref Another source may be the phrase "Hail, Thou", as in The Bible; Luke 1:28 and Matthew 27:14. Hello is alternatively thought to come from the word hollo (also holla, holloa). [2] The definition of hollo is to shout or an exclamation originally shouted in a fox hunt when a fox was spotted.[3]

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Hullo

"Hello" may also be derived from "Hullo". "Hullo" was in use before hello and was used as a greeting and also an expression of surprise.Template:Fact Though much less common than it used to be, the word "hullo" is still in use, mainly in British English.

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Telephone

The word hello is also credited to Alexander Graham Bell specifically as a way to greet someone when answering the telephone; allegedly when expressing his surprise with a misheard "Hullo". [4] Because of hello's beginning association with telephones, around 1889 central telephone exchange operators were known as hello-girls. [5]

The Hungarian word "hallom" "I hear you", without the letter "m", is the word we use every time we speak into a telephone receiver. How did this Hungarian word become part of the World's vocabulary?

The Hungarian inventor Tivadar Puskas was in America when Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. Soon Puskas began work on a telephone exchange. According to Thomas Edison, "Tivadar Puskas was the first person to suggest the idea of a telephone exchange". Puskas's idea finally became a reality in 1877 in Boston. It was then that the word "hallom", which later became "hallo/hello" was used for the first time in a telephone conversation when, on hearing the voice of the person at the other end of the line, an exultant Puskas shouted out in Hungarian "hallom" "I hear you".

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Some equivalents in other languages

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External links

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References

es:Hola fr:Salut it:Ciao pt:Oi zh:Hello (语言)

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