What was the English greeting before hello?

Edison’s competitor, Alexander Graham Bell, had his own idea for a proper telephone greeting. Instead of hello, he preferred the word “ahoy.” While ahoy may sound funny to us today, the word actually had been used as a greeting for a long time among sailors.

How did they say hello in the 1800s?

The use of ‘hello’ was suggested by Thomas Edison. The phone’s inventor Alexander Graham Bell, however, preferred the use of the nautical terms ‘ahoy’ or ‘ahoy-hoy’ as used to hail ships.

What is an old way of saying hello?

An older greeting form was hail be thou, meaning ‘be healthy’. So how we express even such an apparently basic language function like greeting changes with time. Just to drive home the point, the Old English Wes hāl could be used to say ‘goodbye’ as well as ‘hello’.

What was the first way to say hello?

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. Alexander Graham Bell initially used Ahoy (as used on ships) as a telephone greeting. However, in 1877, Edison wrote to T. B. A.

When did the word hi come into use?

Hi: greeting, 1862, American English (first recorded reference is to speech of a Kansas Indian), originally to attract attention (15c.), probably a variant of Middle English hy, hey (late 15c.) also an exclamation to call attention. Extended form hiya attested from 1940.

Did people say hi in the 1800s?

While use of the term hello dates back earlier, it isn’t recorded with this exact spelling until the 1800s. Hello as used as an everyday greeting is recorded since at least the 1850s. Because it’s such a common word, we might have expected that greeting to be recorded earlier.

Is Hello old fashioned?

The simplest greetings is the old-fashioned “hello,” “hey,” or “hi.” You can use these in almost any situation!

When did the word hello originate?

Hello is first recorded in the early 1800s, but was originally used to attract attention or express surprise (“Well, hello! What do we have here?”). But the true breakthrough for this now-common word was when it was employed in the service of brand-new technology: the telephone.