Hello is a salutation or greeting in the English language and its meaning is synonymous with other similar sounding salutations such as Hi or Hey. Hello was recorded in dictionaries by 1883. Many different languages use an equivalent expression which sounds similar often either starting with an h or having a l sound. Examples would be Russian алло (pronounced as allo), Spanish hola, and Thai haloo. It should be noted that if some of these languages imported the English word to use it as a greeting on attending the telephone, several others have their own specific origin for the word, as with Portuguese olá and Spanish hola, both probably of Arabic origin, German hallo and Hungarian hallom.

First use

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Many stories date the first use of hello (with that spelling) to around the time of the invention of the telephone in 1876. It was however used in print in Roughing It by Mark Twain in 1872 (written between 1870 and 1871)Roughing It at UVa Library, so its first use must have predated the telephone:

"A miner came out and said: 'Hello!'"

It was listed in dictionaries by 1883.Online Etymology Dictionary

Etymology

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There are many different theories to the origins of the word. It may be a contraction of archaic English "whole be thou". Another source may be the phrase "Hail, Thou", as in the Bible; Luke 1:28 and Matthew 27:14.

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Hello, Dolly - Twitter Search

Wann verdammtnochmal wird Wordpress lernen, dass ich das Hello Dolly Plugin beim Update nicht wieder haben will, wenn ich es vorher lösche?
eFrane (S G) Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:05:22 -0000
Wann verdammtnochmal wird Wordpress lernen, dass ich das Hello Dolly Plugin beim Update nicht wieder haben will, wenn ich es vorher lösche?
thnx 4 coming out to support OLJ last night @ Joe's Pub! Dolly would've been proud! and a BIG hello to all my new twitts! follow away..
twittbradshaw (Larry Hamilton) Tue, 05 Jan 2010 17:43:23 -0000
thnx 4 coming out to support OLJ last night @ Joe's Pub! Dolly would've been proud! and a BIG hello to all my new twitts! follow away..
New Streisand Radio page! 1969 HELLO DOLLY Open-Ended radio interview. http://is.gd/5MY69
babsdude (Matt Howe) Tue, 05 Jan 2010 17:16:41 -0000
New Streisand Radio page! 1969 HELLO DOLLY Open-Ended radio interview. http://is.gd/5MY69
@Titanium05 http://twitpic.com/ws46d - hello, dolly!
Phisch (Phisch) Tue, 05 Jan 2010 16:10:21 -0000
@Titanium05 http://twitpic.com/ws46d - hello, dolly!
Hello Dolly is the only thing that bugs me about WordPress. Dunno if that's good or bad...
OliverNielsen (Oliver Nielsen) Tue, 05 Jan 2010 14:29:28 -0000
Hello Dolly is the only thing that bugs me about WordPress. Dunno if that's good or bad...
@Wendymal Oh it's Hello, Dolly in Wall-e.
Keris (Keris) Tue, 05 Jan 2010 11:45:25 -0000
@Wendymal Oh it's Hello, Dolly in Wall-e.

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