howdy

Etymology

It is a shortening of the greeting how do ye,^[2][3][4][5] that is, how do you do.^[6][7][8] Merriam-Webster calls it an alteration of “how do”.^[9] Etymonline traces it to a dialect contraction of a phrase asking after someone's health, recorded from the 1560s as “how do ye?”,^[3] and the OED thinks that reduced forms like it were probably in use well before its first records.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

As a greeting, Etymonline finds howedye by the 1570s, contrasted with good-bye,^[3] and Collins also dates the word to the 16th century.^[7] The modern spelling appears in the 18th century:^[3] Merriam-Webster dates howdy to 1712,^[9] and the OED's first record is from a letter of 1788.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline records a fuller form how dee do from the 1680s.^[3] The greeting became chiefly American and informal,^[4][7] and is often found in the phrase to tell someone howdy.^[2] From 1845 it was also a noun, a greeting.^[2] In the American South and South Midland it became a verb, to greet or exchange greetings, recorded from 1864: people could be said to be howdying one another.^[10] Merriam-Webster labels the verb dialectal.^[9]

Timeline

• 1570s – howedye, as a greeting.^[3]
• 1712 – howdy.^[9]
• 1788 – a friendly greeting, in a letter.^[2]
• 1845 – noun, a greeting.^[2]
• 1864 – verb, to greet, in the American South.^[10]

Meanings

Interjection

1. (chiefly US, informal) A friendly greeting; hello.^[7][4][9][2]

Noun

1. A greeting of this kind: She stopped by the porch to say howdy.^[2][4]

Verb

1. (dialect, Southern US) To greet someone, or to exchange greetings: We only howdied and walked on.^[9][10]

Related words

• how
• how do you do

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b c Cassidy, Frederic G. & Joan Houston Hall (eds.) (1985–2002), Dictionary of American Regional English, vols I–IV, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press