Article

2010-08-11 -Short Attention Span Theater-

Hello and Goodbye - do you know where these words came from?

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Posted by gorb 2010-08-11 01:31|| || Front Page|| [3 views ] Top

#1 I like Alexander Graham Bell's suggestion of a telephone greeting: Ahoy!

Arrrrrr......better than hullo.....

Posted by Alaska Paul in Hooper Bay, Alaska 2010-08-11 02:49|| 2010-08-11 02:49|| Front Page Top

#2 My daughter's standard greeting on the phone: "Hey"

Posted by Steve White 2010-08-11 08:51|| 2010-08-11 08:51|| Front Page Top

#3 My standard greeting on my landline phone is "You have reached XXX-XXXX. Please leave a message after the tone." and then I push any button on the dial pad. This is the same message my answering machine gives off, only the tone is different. People who know me, know what to do. Time-wasting callers hang up. People who are calling by mistake ignore the phone ID & leave a message for whomever they imagine they are calling. People who try to leave a legitimate message hear from me on the spot.

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2010-08-11 09:23|| 2010-08-11 09:23|| Front Page Top

#4 Hello came into existence in the mid-1800s. It is an alteration of hallo, which was an alteration of holla or hollo. These words were used to attract immediate attention and demand that the listener come to a stop or cease what he or she was doing. Hallo was used to incite hunting dogs.

One of the problems with the internet is that the same thing gets repeated a million times often based on a single source, in this case the OED.

The OED is probably wrong and hello is likely a contraction of 'hail fellow'. Semantically it fits and many english people pronounce hello more like 'haillow'.

Posted by phil_b 2010-08-11 09:57|| 2010-08-11 09:57|| Front Page Top

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