Hello - wikipedia Hello `` Hiya '' redirects here. For other uses, see Hiya ( disambiguation ). `` Hello ! '' redirects here. For the British magazine, see Hello ! ( magazine ). For other uses, see Hello ( disambiguation ). Hello is a salutation or greeting in the English language. It is first attested in writing from 1826. Contents 1 Early uses 2 Etymology 2.1 Telephone 2.2 Hullo 2.3 Hallo and hollo 3 `` Hello, World '' computer program 4 Apple DOS HELLO program 5 See also 6 References 7 External links Early uses Hello, with that spelling, was used in publications in the US as early as the 18 October 1826 edition of the Norwich Courier of Norwich, Connecticut. Another early use was an 1833 American book called The Sketches and Eccentricities of Col. David Crockett, of West Tennessee, which was reprinted that same year in The London Literary Gazette. The word was extensively used in literature by the 1860s. Etymology According to the Oxford English Dictionary, hello is an alteration of hallo, hollo, which came from Old High German `` halâ, holâ, emphatic imperative of halôn, holôn to fetch, used especially in hailing a ferryman. '' It also connects the development of hello to the influence of an earlier form, holla, whose origin is in the French holà ( roughly, ' whoa there ! ', from French là ' there ' ). As in addition to hello, halloo, hallo, hollo, hullo and ( rarely ) hillo also exist as variants or related words, the word can be spelt using any of all five vowels. Telephone 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. David, the president of the Central District and Printing Telegraph Company of Pittsburgh : Friend David, I do not think we shall need a call bell as Hello ! can be heard 10 to 20 feet away. What you think ? Edison - P.S. first cost of sender & receiver to manufacture is only $7.00. By 1889, central telephone exchange operators were known as ' hello - girls ' because of the association between the greeting and the telephone. Hullo Hello may be derived from hullo, which the American Merriam - Webster dictionary describes as a `` chiefly British variant of hello, '' and which was originally used as an exclamation to call attention, an expression of surprise, or a greeting. Hullo is found in publications as early as 1803. The word hullo is still in use, with the meaning hello. Hallo and hollo `` Hallo '' redirects here. For other uses, see Hallo ( disambiguation ). Hello is alternatively thought to come from the word hallo ( 1840 ) via hollo ( also holla, holloa, halloo, halloa ). The definition of hollo is to shout or an exclamation originally shouted in a hunt when the quarry was spotted : If I fly, Marcius, / Halloo me like a hare. -- Coriolanus ( I. viii. 7 ), William Shakespeare Fowler 's has it that `` hallo '' is first recorded `` as a shout to call attention '' in 1864. It is used by Samuel Taylor Coleridge 's famous poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner written in 1798 : And the good south wind still blew behind, But no sweet bird did follow, Nor any day for food or play Came to the mariners ' hollo ! In many Germanic languages, including German, Danish, Norwegian, Dutch and Afrikaans, `` hallo '' literally translates into English as `` hello ''. In the case of Dutch, it was used as early as 1797 in a letter from Willem Bilderdijk to his sister - in - law as a remark of astonishment. Webster 's dictionary from 1913 traces the etymology of holloa to the Old English halow and suggests : `` Perhaps from ah + lo ; compare Anglo Saxon ealā. '' According to the American Heritage Dictionary, hallo is a modification of the obsolete holla ( stop ! ), perhaps from Old French hola ( ho, ho ! + la, there, from Latin illac, that way ). The Old English verb, hǽlan ( 1. wv / t1b 1 to heal, cure, save ; greet, salute ; gehǽl ! Hosanna ! ), may be the ultimate origin of the word. Hǽlan is likely a cognate of German Heil ( meaning complete for things and healthy for beings ) and other similar words of Germanic origin. Bill Bryson asserts in his book Mother Tongue that `` hello '' comes from Old English hál béo þu ( `` Hale be thou '', or `` whole be thou '', meaning a wish for good health ) ( see also `` goodbye '' which is a contraction of `` God be with you ''. `` Hello, World '' computer program Main article : `` Hello, World ! '' program Students learning a new computer programming language will often begin by writing a `` Hello, World ! '' program, which does nothing but issue the message `` Hello, world '' to the user ( such as by displaying it on a screen ). This popular tradition arose from an introductory chapter of the book The C Programming Language by Kernighan & Ritchie, which reused the following example taken from earlier memos by Brian Kernighan at Bell Labs : int main ( ) ( printf ( `` hello, world '' ) ; ) Apple DOS hello program A diskette formatted to boot Apple DOS 3. x on the Apple II series of computers will look for a BASIC program to run automatically after the operating system has booted. By default, the name of the program is HELLO, and is specified as a parameter of the INIT command used to format a floppy disk. For the HELLO program to work, it has to be created in the same language ( Integer BASIC or Applesoft BASIC ) that is present in the language ROM of the system the disk is being booted on. See also Aloha As - salamu alaykum Ciao Kia ora Namaste Shalom World Hello Day References ^ Jump up to : `` hello ''. Oxford English Dictionary ( 3rd ed. ). Oxford University Press. September 2005. ( Subscription or UK public library membership required. ) Jump up ^ ( Anonymous ). The Sketches and Eccentricities of Col. David Crockett, of West Tennessee. New York : J. & J. Harper, 1833. p. 144. Jump up ^ `` The Sketches and Eccentricities of Col. David Crockett, of West Tennessee. '' The London Literary Gazette ; and Journal of Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences, &c. No. 883 : December 21, 1833. p. 803. Jump up ^ ( 1 ) Origin of the word. Jump up ^ `` hallo ''. Oxford English Dictionary ( 3rd ed. ). Oxford University Press. September 2005. ( Subscription or UK public library membership required. ) Jump up ^ `` holla ''. Oxford English Dictionary ( 3rd ed. ). Oxford University Press. September 2005. ( Subscription or UK public library membership required. ) Jump up ^ Butler, Mann, A History of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, Wilcox, Dickerman & Co., 1834, p. 106. Jump up ^ Merriam - Webster : Hollo Jump up ^ Merriam - Webster : Hullo Jump up ^ Merriam - Webster : Hillo Jump up ^ Allen Koenigsberg. `` The First `` Hello ! '' : Thomas Edison, the Phonograph and the Telephone -- Part 2 ``. Antique Phonograph Magazine. Vol. VIII no. 6. Archived from the original on 2006 - 11 - 16. Retrieved 2006 - 09 - 13. Jump up ^ Allen Koenigsberg ( 1999 ). `` All Things Considered ''. National Public Radio. Retrieved 2006 - 09 - 13. ^ Jump up to : `` Online Etymology Dictionary ''. etymonline.com. Retrieved 28 September 2010. Jump up ^ Allen Koenigsberg. `` The First `` Hello ! '' : Thomas Edison, the Phonograph and the Telephone -- Part 2 ``. Retrieved 1 August 2012. Jump up ^ `` hullo - Definition from the Merriam - Webster Online Dictionary ''. Merriam-webster.com. 2007 - 04 - 25. Retrieved 2009 - 09 - 26. Jump up ^ The Sporting Magazine. London ( 1803 ). Volume 23, p. 12. Jump up ^ phpBB + phpBB Search Engine Indexer. `` Hullo From Orkney ''. Forum.downsizer.net. Retrieved 2009 - 09 - 26. Jump up ^ Piers Beckley ( 2008 - 04 - 23 ). `` Writersroom Blog : Hullo again. Did you miss me ? ''. BBC. Retrieved 2009 - 09 - 26. Jump up ^ Barton, Laura ( 2005 - 02 - 23 ). `` Paris for a day Technology ''. London : The Guardian. Retrieved 2009 - 09 - 26. Jump up ^ `` Ashes : England v Australia - day one as it happened Andy Bull and Rob Smyth Sport guardian.co.uk ''. London : Guardian. 2009 - 07 - 16. Retrieved 2009 - 09 - 26. Jump up ^ `` BBC SPORT Football Europe Semi-final clash excites fans ''. BBC News. 2005 - 04 - 14. Retrieved 2009 - 09 - 26. Jump up ^ `` Hello ''. Merriam - Webster Online. Retrieved 2016 - 02 - 07. Jump up ^ `` Hollo ''. Merriam - Webster Online. Retrieved 2016 - 02 - 07. Jump up ^ The New Fowler 's, revised third edition by R.W. Burchfield, Oxford University Press. ISBN 0 - 19 - 860263 - 4, p. 356. Jump up ^ Bilderdijk, Willem Liefde en ballingschap. Brieven 1795 - 1797 ( ed. Marita Mathijsen ). Uitgeverij De Arbeiderspers, Amsterdam / Antwerp 1997 Jump up ^ `` Hello ''. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language : Fourth Edition. 2000. Retrieved 2006 - 09 - 01. Jump up ^ OEME Dictionaries External links Look up hello, hi, hey, or hiya in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Hello in more than 800 languages OED online entry for hollo ( Subscription ) Merriam - Webster Dictionary : hollo, hullo Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hello&oldid=801594816 '' Categories : Greeting words and phrases English words Hidden categories : Wikipedia indefinitely semi-protected pages Talk View source Contents About Wikipedia Dansk Deutsch Español فارسی 한국어 עברית Magyar Bahasa Melayu Norsk nynorsk Simple English Türkmençe 粵語 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 20 September 2017, at 16 : 58. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: who is credited with suggesting the word hello be used when answering the phone
Answer: Thomas Edison