hello

Etymology
Hello (first attested in 1826), from, (attested 1588). This variant of is often credited to Thomas Edison as a coinage for telephone use, but its appearance in print predates the invention of the telephone by several decades.

Ultimately from a variant of Old English, such as , which was used colloquially at the time similarly to how hey and (in some dialects) hi are used nowadays. Thus, equivalent to a compound of and. Used when drawing attention to yourself.

Possibly influenced by, imperative of , used in hailing a ferryman, akin to , , imperative forms of ,. More at.

OED and Merriam-Webster also suggested that it is a variant of, a variant of. Further beyond, the origin remains uncertain. OED and Merriam-Webster suggested that it has a connection between, which came from Old French.

According to Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, Old French is from Old Saxon.

Interjection

 * 1) * 2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)
 * Hello. This is Marsha. ― Yes, Marsha.
 * 1) * 2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)
 * Hello. This is Marsha. ― Yes, Marsha.
 * 1) * 2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)
 * Hello. This is Marsha. ― Yes, Marsha.

Usage notes

 * The greeting is among the most universal and neutral in use. It may be heard in nearly all social situations and nearly all walks of life and is unlikely to offend.


 * In the derived senses, the word-final stress may be emphasized to focus attention, but word-initial stress is also heard in certain contexts, such as some uses of, and even in isolation.

Synonyms

 * g'day, hey, hi,
 * hallo, hi, hiya, ey up
 * hallo, hey, hi, howdy
 * how's it going, hey, hi
 * howzit
 * wassup, what's up, yo, sup, what's good
 * wassup, what's up, yo, sup, what's good

Translations

 * Fijian:
 * Irish:
 * Maori:
 * Marshallese:
 * Nahuatl:
 * Nepali:
 * Tatar:, (1), ,  (2)
 * Urdu: ,
 * Vietnamese: (,, , , , , quí vị)

Noun

 * 1) "Hello!" or an equivalent greeting.

Verb

 * 1)  To greet with "hello".

Etymology
From.

Interjection

 * , hi

Etymology
.

Noun

 * 1) a page
 * 2) one side of a wall, a wall
 * 3) a slap in the face