Barely a greeting until Edison made it the telephone's opening word, transforming a ferryman's shout into a universal salutation.
A greeting used when meeting someone or answering the telephone. Also used to attract attention or express surprise.
The word 'hello' is surprisingly modern. It derives from earlier forms like 'hallo' and 'hollo,' which were shouts used to attract attention or express surprise, attested from the 1500s onward. These likely trace back to Old High German 'halâ' or 'holâ,' an imperative meaning 'fetch!' used especially to hail a ferryman. The modern spelling and its association with everyday greetings only became standard after Thomas Edison championed 'hello' as the proper telephone greeting in 1877, beating out Alexander Graham Bell's preferred