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ArchivesNot a name, but...
...I haven't been able to find a meaning (NOT usage) and origin of the word Hello. Webster's New World Dictionary doesn't even give an origin, and our two volume Webster's Universal Unabridged Dictionary (Copyright 1937) says: Hello (interj.) a colloquial form of hallo.
Hallo (interj.) [AS. ea lo!, ealo! AH LO!] an exclaimation
used as a salutation or to attract attention.
Alternate spellings: Halloa, hilloa, holloa, hulloa, hallow, hallo, hello, hillo, hollo, hullo.
Ah lo! could be the origin, but it doesn't fit with the origins of the other greeting words.
[Welcome] comes from ["It is WELL (or good) that you have COME!"] ["You are WELL COME!"]
[Good-by] or [Goodbye] comes from ["GOD BE with you!"]
So I was theorizing that Hello could have originated like:
[Hello] comes from [Hallo] and can be spelled [Hallow] as in ["HALLOWED (Holy, sacred) is our meeting!"]
Got any info? Thx. :)
Hallo (interj.) [AS. ea lo!, ealo! AH LO!] an exclaimation
used as a salutation or to attract attention.
Alternate spellings: Halloa, hilloa, holloa, hulloa, hallow, hallo, hello, hillo, hollo, hullo.
Ah lo! could be the origin, but it doesn't fit with the origins of the other greeting words.
[Welcome] comes from ["It is WELL (or good) that you have COME!"] ["You are WELL COME!"]
[Good-by] or [Goodbye] comes from ["GOD BE with you!"]
So I was theorizing that Hello could have originated like:
[Hello] comes from [Hallo] and can be spelled [Hallow] as in ["HALLOWED (Holy, sacred) is our meeting!"]
Got any info? Thx. :)
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Replies
Thanks, all...
...for so much info!! Ever since my mom got a Boggle game, I've found that reading the dictionary is fun! So when I find a word without full info, I start to theorize...:)
...for so much info!! Ever since my mom got a Boggle game, I've found that reading the dictionary is fun! So when I find a word without full info, I start to theorize...:)
1
Precursors of the exclamation "hello" (Halloa, Hollo, hola, etc) preceded the telephone and Bell by several centuries.
Examples:
1523 Ld. Berners Froiss. I. ccclxv. 597 "Than therle of Buckyngham sayd, hola, cease, for it is late."
1593 Shakes. Rich. II, iv. i. 54 "As many lies As may be holloa'd in thy treacherous ear."
1588 Shakes. Tit. A. ii. i. 25 "Hollo, what storme is this?"
I find your approach quite elegant, Yahalome, though there is no univesally accepted etymology. One other possibility is from the French "hola" (ho-la, "hey, there!).
Examples:
1523 Ld. Berners Froiss. I. ccclxv. 597 "Than therle of Buckyngham sayd, hola, cease, for it is late."
1593 Shakes. Rich. II, iv. i. 54 "As many lies As may be holloa'd in thy treacherous ear."
1588 Shakes. Tit. A. ii. i. 25 "Hollo, what storme is this?"
I find your approach quite elegant, Yahalome, though there is no univesally accepted etymology. One other possibility is from the French "hola" (ho-la, "hey, there!).
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Hallo Yahalome!
The German words hallo and holla were originally imperatives of the Old High German words "halon" (to call, to fetch) and "holon" (to fetch over). These imperatives were used when calling a ferryman (as early as in 1500). Much later (in 1800) one started to use them as common greetings.
Tschüß
Satu
The German words hallo and holla were originally imperatives of the Old High German words "halon" (to call, to fetch) and "holon" (to fetch over). These imperatives were used when calling a ferryman (as early as in 1500). Much later (in 1800) one started to use them as common greetings.
Tschüß
Satu
1
A possible explanation
This is the best I managed to find:
Hello
This greeting is much newer than most people think. The use of hello as a greeting is only as old as the telephone. The first recorded use is from 1883.
It does, however, have earlier origins in other senses. It is a variant of hallo, which dates to 1840 and is a cry of surprise. That in turn is related to halloo , a cry to urge on hunting dogs. Halloo dates to about 1700, but a variant, aloo, appears in Shakespeare's King Lear a century earlier than that.
And there is an even earlier variant, hollo, which dates to at least 1588 when Shakespeare used it in Titus Andronicus. There are also cognates in other Germanic languages.
Hello was not a shoo-in for the telephone greeting either. It competed with several other options, including Alexander Graham Bell's suggestion of Ahoy , but pulled into an early lead and by the end of the 1880s was firmly ensconced.
Taken from: http://www.wordorigins.org/wordorh.htm#Hello
This is the best I managed to find:
Hello
This greeting is much newer than most people think. The use of hello as a greeting is only as old as the telephone. The first recorded use is from 1883.
It does, however, have earlier origins in other senses. It is a variant of hallo, which dates to 1840 and is a cry of surprise. That in turn is related to halloo , a cry to urge on hunting dogs. Halloo dates to about 1700, but a variant, aloo, appears in Shakespeare's King Lear a century earlier than that.
And there is an even earlier variant, hollo, which dates to at least 1588 when Shakespeare used it in Titus Andronicus. There are also cognates in other Germanic languages.
Hello was not a shoo-in for the telephone greeting either. It competed with several other options, including Alexander Graham Bell's suggestion of Ahoy , but pulled into an early lead and by the end of the 1880s was firmly ensconced.
Taken from: http://www.wordorigins.org/wordorh.htm#Hello
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i thought it was a word that envovled from Alexander Bell first said when the telephone worked........
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