As regular readers would know, I usually start my columns with ‘Hello!’, which is a much newer word than you might think.

It first came into use because of the telephone. The first telephone call was made in 1876 by Alexander Graham Bell, who wanted to use the word ‘ahoy’ as the telephone greeting. ‘Ahoy’ was originally a Viking battle cry, so if he’d had his way, then that’s probably how I’d be starting my columns too!

Bell wanted a short, snappy greeting for the telephone. Before this time, English-speaking people generally greeted each other with ‘good day’.

In many countries, the most common greeting words translate into ‘good day’, such as bonjour in French, guten tag in German, or buon giorno in Italian. In Korea, the greeting annyeonghaseyo means ‘Are you in peace?’, in China, ni hao means ‘Are you well?’, and the Hebrew word shalom means ‘Peace be with you’.

What one says as a greeting has an understandable meaning in most languages, but how many of us know what hello actually means?

In pre-telephone days, ‘halloo!’ was a cry to urge on hunting dogs. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, it comes from ‘holla!’, an exclamation of surprise, which originated from the old French ‘ho la!’ (hey there) meaning ‘Stop there!’. It’s used in the typical dialogue of an English policeman’s patter, as in ’Allo, ’allo ’allo, what’s going on ’ere then?

Isn’t that strange? While speakers of other languages are wishing each other a good day, or conveying good will generally, we’re saying ‘Stop there!’ instead.

Well, that was the original meaning. Luckily, language is a living, moving entity and the meaning has moved on, so that it is now a close relative of ‘good day’.

Hello, or one of its variations hallo and hullo, is now used informally to answer the phone in Holland, Germany and many other countries. In Spanish, the original hola is still used to answer the phone, alternatively alo, jalo, bueno, al or diga, depending on the location. The ‘hi’ greeting, probably a variant of ‘hey’, has been popularised by Americans and is also used widely. But of course, in Australia the most popular form of greeting is still G’day!

Happy Puzzling!