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Author Topic: A (Shockingly) Short History Of "Hello"  (Read 4990 times)

mouser

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A (Shockingly) Short History Of "Hello"
« on: February 18, 2011, 10:13 AM »
Very cool history of the word "Hello" that most of us take for granted..

The Oxford English Dictionary says the first published use of "hello" goes back only to 1827. And it wasn't mainly a greeting back then...



from http://andrewsulliva...istory-of-hello.html

tomos

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Re: A (Shockingly) Short History Of "Hello"
« Reply #1 on: February 18, 2011, 12:31 PM »
:) a nice read :up:

they say "Hallo" in the German speaking world. I presume it's modern usage came over from the US, it had a similar earlier history to the English/American version.
My German etymological dictionary describes it's earlier origin in the 15th century as a call/shout to a Ferryman, but doesnt say how it changed to become a greeting...
Tom