Early uses

Hello, with that spelling, was used in publications in the US as early as the 18 October 1826

edition of the Norwich Courier of Norwich, Connecticut.[1] Another early use was an 1833

American book called The Sketches and Eccentricities of Col. David Crockett, of West

Tennessee,[2] which was reprinted that same year in The London Literary Gazette.[3] The word

was extensively used in literature by the 1860s.[4]

Etymology

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, hello is an alteration of hallo, hollo,[1] which came

from Old High German "halâ, holâ, emphatic imperative of halôn, holôn to fetch, used

especially in hailing a ferryman."[5] 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').[6] As in addition to hello, halloo,[7] hallo, hollo, hullo and (rarely) hillo also exist

as variants or related words, the word can be spelt using any of all five vowels.[8][9][10]

Telephone

The use of hello as a telephone greeting has been credited to Thomas Edison; according to

one source, he expressed his surprise with a misheard Hullo.[11] Alexander Graham Bell initially

used Ahoy (as used on ships) as a telephone greeting.[12][13] However, in 1877, Edison wrote to

T. B. A. David, president of the Central District and Printing Telegraph Company of Pittsburgh:

Friend David, I do not think we shall need a call bell as Hello! can be heard 10 to 20 feet away.

What you think? Edison - P.S. first cost of sender & receiver to manufacture is only $7.00.[14]

By 1889, central telephone exchange operators were known as 'hello-girls' because of the

association between the greeting and the telephone.[13][15]

Hullo

Hello might be derived from hullo, which the American Merriam-Webster dictionary describes

as a "chiefly British variant of hello,"[16] 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.[17] The word hullo is still in use, with the meaning hello.[18][19][20][21][22]

Hallo and hollo

"Hallo" redirects here. For other uses, see Hallo (disambiguation).

Hello is alternatively thought to come from the word hallo (1840)

via hollo (also holla, holloa, halloo, halloa).[23] The definition of hollo is to shout or an

exclamation originally shouted in a hunt when the quarry was spotted:[24]

If I fly, Marcius,/Halloo me like a hare.

— Coriolanus (I.viii.7), William Shakespeare

Fowler's has it that "hallo" is first recorded "as a shout to call attention" in 1864.[25] It is used

by Samuel Taylor Coleridge's famous poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner written in 1798:

And the good south wind still blew behind,

But no sweet bird did follow,

Nor any day for food or play

Came to the mariners' hollo!