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Hello, Hi, Hey: I'm $$$ richh


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Okay granted this is a blog I'm sourcing, but...

"In 1877, Thomas Edison, the famous inventor who developed the first practical telephone transmitter, solved the problem by introducing “Hello!” as the standard English telephone greeting. The word had been around for a little while; Mark Twain had used it in Tom Sawyer."

If that word can be found in another book then I guess that would mean that it wasn't invented for the telephone, it just became widespread from it~

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That's talking about what the word hello was based off of, yes... Did it say anything on what started the term and I just missed it?

They all come from cries used to urge on hunting dogs, and keep in touch will others in the field.

As I understand it, variations of 'hello' were originally used to urge on hunting dugs. OED notes that the form 'hello' itself wasn't in use until the late 19th century. The telephone was invented in the late 19th century (so there could be a relation), but it seems more likely to me that hello is just a variant spelling of hallo, which has been in use since the mid 16th century.

So I think hello was simply a variant spelling whose origin is unrelated to the invention of the telephone, but I can't be sure.

Edited by Hattusili I
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As I understand it, variations of 'hello' were originally used to urge on hunting dugs. OED notes that the form 'hello' itself wasn't in use until the late 19th century. The telephone was invented in the late 19th century (so there could be a relation), but it seems more likely to me that hello is just a variant spelling of hallo, which has been in use since the mid 16th century.

So I think hello was simply a variant spelling whose origin is unrelated to the invention of the telephone, but I can't be sure.

Well yeah I saw that part...

idk I guess I just consider "hello variant spelling of hallo with the same meaning" and "hello used as a greeting based off of hallo but with a different meaning" to be completely different things, and that inventing the latter is more what the wtf fun fact was getting at and the oxford dictionary was getting at the former

But oh well it's just wtf fun fact, there's really no need to try to look too in-depth into their intentions I guess~

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Well yeah I saw that part...

idk I guess I just consider "hello variant spelling of hallo with the same meaning" and "hello used as a greeting based off of hallo but with a different meaning" to be completely different things, and that inventing the latter is more what the wtf fun fact was getting at and the oxford dictionary was getting at the former

But oh well it's just wtf fun fact, there's really no need to try to look too in-depth into their intentions I guess~

Sounds like a good idea

no need to get all worked up over it

but if you're one of those guys that JUST NEED TO BE SURE, i understand

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Well yeah I saw that part...

idk I guess I just consider "hello variant spelling of hallo with the same meaning" and "hello used as a greeting based off of hallo but with a different meaning" to be completely different things, and that inventing the latter is more what the wtf fun fact was getting at and the oxford dictionary was getting at the former

But oh well it's just wtf fun fact, there's really no need to try to look too in-depth into their intentions I guess~

What is clear is that hello was already in use as a variant of hallo, which was used to attract attention, which I think explains its origin as a greeting.

The word hello does seem to have received 'fame' as the traditional telephone conversation greeting, but to go so far as to state that the word was invented for phone conversations appears to be wrong.

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What is clear is that hello was already in use as a variant of hallo, which was used to attract attention, which I think explains its origin as a greeting.

The word hello does seem to have received 'fame' as the traditional telephone conversation greeting, but to go so far as to state that the word was invented for phone conversations appears to be wrong.

That's kind of what I just said, though...

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What is clear is that hello was already in use as a variant of hallo, which was used to attract attention, which I think explains its origin as a greeting.

The word hello does seem to have received 'fame' as the traditional telephone conversation greeting, but to go so far as to state that the word was invented for phone conversations appears to be wrong.

Yep, it was just badly written

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(also I feel like I should clarify my intentions because I think they might not be getting across...)

I don't care who's wrong or who's right in this. I slightly care about what's right since this topic has piqued my interest~

But what I'm mostly caring about is that it looked like Hattu was trying to counter Shock's picture with an unrelated point, which is why I'm trying to clarify to myself whether that point related or not. And I'm trying to counter with something that I think relates (that hello has been used before the telephone in Tom Sawyer, though it never did specify which definition of "hello" was used in it... now I feel as if I'm obligated to go search up which meaning of "hello" was used in that book)

So pretty much what I'm caring about is "disprove it better" ^o^

Kind of, yeah.

But if hello was originally just a variant spelling of hallo, it cannot have been invented for the telephone; after all, phone conversations are spoken, not written.

That's kind of stretching it... what I've looked up says that they spelled it different because the americans(/Thomas Edison) pronounced it different, so they started spelling it like that. Not saying whether that's right or not, but I'm just saying why that argument proves nothing~

Edited by Freohr Datia
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