While there absolutely exist words that started their semantic lives as individuals' names, hi doesn't have a place in that class. This unfortunate story about the girlfriend of Alexander Graham Bell's surname is nothing more than a hoax.
In November 2010, this alleged etymology for hello began to appear online. The telephone inventor has been renamed "Graham Bell" and "Graham-bell" by subsequent iterations of this leg-pull, with one version claiming that "His first two instruments were at his and her place... and the first call he made to commercially test the phones was to his girlfriend!"
In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell (born 1847–1922) developed the telephone. The initial call to his assistant, who was in the adjacent room, was successful: I want to see you, Mr. Watson. Come here."
Graham's first call to "Margaret Hello," referred to in the fictitious story as "his girlfriend," would have been fascinating personal information to those who knew Bell because he was engaged to Mabel Hubbard in 1876, married the following year, and remained his wife until his death in 1922. By December 2016, the story had evolved into a meme; In fact, the picture of Bell holding the alleged "Margaret Hello" was a picture of Hubbard and the inventor.
Hello is a variant of hallo, which in turn is a variant of holla and hollo, which were shouts used to draw attention in the same way that Yoo-hoo! would. Say hello! as well, waiter! today. The earliest types of this interjection seem to date to least 1400. Hullo, the British equivalent of hello, first appeared in print in 1803, but not as a greeting but rather as a shout to draw attention.
In the manner of a greeting similar to Good morning, Heya, or Wazzup, the use of the greeting we are most familiar with dates back approximately twenty years prior to Bell's birth. According to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the U.S. Telegraph in 1827 was the first publication to use it in print.
Hello, sez Joe Laughton, wher's Bil Perry un Olla Parsons?
As this OED entry demonstrates, the greeting was also being used as a verb by 1834:
There have we been hunting and helloing all over for thee, and lo-and-behold, thou art here!
Concerning what type of hello Ringer upheld for calls, different sources declare he inclined toward ahoy. Instead, Thomas Edison was the proponent of using hello.
0 Comments