hello English · revision 3778

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=onomatopoeia|attested=1848|origins=en hollo}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: UK /helˈəʊ/, US /helˈoʊ/^(Roach et al. 2011)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is an alteration of [[hallo]], itself an alteration of [[holla]] or [[hollo]], a shout to attract attention.^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(MWU 2024)^(NODE 1998) The cry goes back at least to the late 14th century, compare the Middle English verb halouen “to shout in the chase”.^(Etymonline) The OED cites Old High German hala, hola, the emphatic imperative of halōn “to fetch”, used especially in hailing a ferryman.^(Etymonline) Barnhart thinks that hello, hallo, holla and hollo are natural formations in English, parallel to similar ones in German and French,^(Barnhart 1988) and the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins traces them to cries used to urge on hunting dogs.^(Cresswell 2021)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ As a greeting: 1848 in Etymonline, in reports from the American western frontier.^(Etymonline) Barnhart dates hello to 1883, the OED's first example of it as a greeting,^(Barnhart 1988)^(OED 1989) Merriam-Webster to 1877.^(MWU 2024) Hallo is from 1840, in Dickens's ''Barnaby Rudge'', and holla from 1588.^(Barnhart 1988)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Its rise as a greeting in the 1880s coincided with the spread of the telephone, where it won out as the word for answering over Alexander Graham Bell's suggestion, ''ahoy''.^(Etymonline) The OED's first example as an answer to a telephone call is from 1892.^(OED 1989) Telephone exchange operators were known as hello-girls by 1880.^(Etymonline) Fowler in 1926 listed some fifteen variants, from halloo to hullo, and noted that hello, once an Americanism, was nearly as common as hullo in Britain.^(Etymonline) The earlier greeting was [[hail]].^(Cresswell 2021)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1588 – ''holla''.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1840 – ''hallo'', in Dickens.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1848 – ''hello'', a greeting.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1880 – ''hello-girls''.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1883 – hello.^(Barnhart 1988)^(OED 1989)

+ * 1892 – answering the telephone.^(OED 1989)

+ * 1897 – noun.^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Interjection===

+ # Used as a [[greeting]] or to begin a telephone call.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)

+ # Used to attract attention or to express surprise.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)

+

+ ===Noun===

+ # A call or greeting of hello.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)

+

+ ===Verb===

+ # To say or call hello.^(AHD)^(MW Collegiate)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[hallo]]

+ * [[hollo]]

+ * [[holla]]

+ * [[halloo]]

+ * [[hullo]]

+ * [[holler]]

+ * [[hail]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ In southeastern Lincolnshire dialect, to do something ''like hello'' was to do it with ridiculous ease.^(Wright 1898)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}