Hello!
hello
1883, alt. of hallo (1840), itself an alt. of holla, hollo, a shout to attract attention, first recorded 1588. Perhaps from holla! “stop, cease.” Popularity as a greeting coincides with use of the telephone, where it won out over Alexander Graham Bell’s suggestion, ahoy. Central telephone exchange operators were known as hello-girls (1889).“Hello, formerly an Americanism, is now nearly as common as hullo in Britain (Say who you are; do not just say ‘hello’ is the warning given in our telephone directories) and the Englishman cannot be expected to give up the right to say hello if he likes it better than his native hullo. [H.W. Fowler, "A Dictionary of Modern English Usage," 1926]
Why am I sharing this?
Because Shawn somehow managed to remind me of this:
‘Heaveno’ has received one heck of a response
KINGSVILLE, Texas (AP) - A South Texas man who campaigned to replace ”hello” with ”heaveno” has had plenty of opportunities to use his new greeting.
Kingsville resident Leonso Canales Jr. has been inundated with telephone calls since he successfully lobbied Kleberg County commissioners last month to designate ”heaveno” as the county’s official greeting.
…
Still, Matthews said, he wants recognition as a pioneer in taking ”hell” out of ”hello.”
Which led to the discovery of this.
Which lead to this comment by Shawn:
I’m like, “I already read this, HeavenO…”
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August 14th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
I think I’m going to be ill…
August 14th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
Valhalla-O!
Sheol-O!
Nirvana-O!
August 14th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
Elysium-O!
Celestial, terrestrial and telestial-O!
Ugh. All too reminiscent of the “Keep Christ in Christmas” campaign, just too primly, nauseously, blindly self-righteous for my taste.
Hello, merry Xmas from all of us here roasting memes around the fires of hell. Pass the beer and turn up the heavy metal, would you?
August 14th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
I still prefer a jaunty “Hoy, Hoy!”
August 14th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
I won’t say this is the most stupid thing I ever heard - it has a lot of competition. But it ranks right up there. Me, I’ll be more concerned with feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and so on. The things that really matter to me from a, you know, biblical point of view.
Idiots. They know no race, color, creed, or nationality.
August 14th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
High Level OT or rebirth-o!
No, that’s really too long to catch on as a greeting, isn’t it?
August 14th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
I think of all the greetings I’ve ever heard, I like the Croatian “bok” best.
August 14th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
I do believe you’re right. Bok *is* the best.
I would so totally have a hard time not going “Bok! Bok! Bok!” all the time.
Hoy Hoy doesn’t have quite the same ring as “AVAST!” Which if we’re going to be nautical like, I’d rather use.
August 15th, 2008 at 11:40 am
Sadly, I knew all of this (except for the “heaveno” part). My brother-in-law works in telcomm and enjoys his tales of telephone history. He answers the phone “ahoy-ahoy” as an homage to Edison. Ugh.