12 thoughts on “Who Invented “Hello”?”

  1. I remembered a Mark Twain short story in which he imagines a crow or magpie happening on something interesting and saying, “Hello, what’s this?” — but the article touches on that with the British “hullo.” It does seem that Edison perhaps unconsciously combined the two into the modern word.

    It’s a good thing too — I can’t imagine “You had me at Halloo!”

  2. Unfortunately for the Times, Edison was born in 1847, and the word “hello” appears in a biography of Col. David Crockett published in 1833.

    It’s a pity newspapers don’t have a way to check these things. Perhaps some sort of electronic search engine.

  3. Clark,
    just “Ahoy”, most days. But on Talk Like a Pirate Day, “Ahoy and ARRRRGGh Matey!”

    My son and his wife are BIG into all things Japanese. He was stationed over there for 3 years. They answer their phones a lot of times with , “…moshi moshi”.

    My grandfather hated talking on the phone at home. He was a plant superintendent and spent much of each work day on the phone. So when he was at home he’d answer the phone with a strong, “…WHAT?”

    It used to hack off my grandmother to no end.

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