Talk:Hello/Archive 2

Ole' -> Ola (Hola) -> Hello
I am inclined to think that the word "Hello" is a cognate of the Spanish "Hola" which in turn has links to the Spanish "Ole". (Mikael108 (talk) 11:27, 3 August 2008 (UTC))Mika


 * Actually, I just followed the links in the article to the Oxford English Dictionary, and it provides an etymology in which hello is derived from holla, which is from French holà (roughly, 'ho there!'). Thus the claim made in the article that the OED traces hello back to a German source seems to be false. Is there something I'm missing? MJM74 (talk) 19:37, 3 October 2008 (UTC)


 * I partially take back what I say immediately above. In fact, the German origin of the word is found in the OED, as is the French one. I'm a bit confused as to which is which, though---there seems to be some unclarity in the OED itself on this point. It seems like maybe what's going on is that there are two alternative etymologies of hello which OED is saying converged. I'm going to introduce a mention of this alternative etymology into the article---it seems worth mentioning---but if someone could determine more precisely what is going on with these two etymologies, it would probably help make the article clearer and more comprehensive. MJM74 (talk) 17:58, 4 October 2008 (UTC)

Possible Hullo reference
I believe one can find many uses of the British English "Hullo" variant in the Winnie_the_pooh books dating to the mid 1920's, although it may be an intentionally archaic usage. One will also see "hallo" there, IIRC. 12.44.50.248 (talk) 16:12, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

WW1
That is an amazing point, but in WW1 we used "Hello" as a way to check an allies system. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dravaskan (talk • contribs) 23:31, 19 November 2008 (UTC)

Well...
This is quite an interesting page. I've never really thought about were the word Hello came from. Jogging4ever (talk) 21:40, 6 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Is this section adding information to the discussion? Yet the comment is interesting in itself, because it shows how language might be accepted as an axiom without origin nor evolution (and how language might evolve without people realizing this evolution)...  But interesting or not, is this really linked to the subject?  (--Pb.marty (talk) 12:32, 14 September 2009 (UTC))

Origins Of Hello
The first written use of hello is spelt with an 'e' is in a letter of Edison's in August 1877 suggesting that the best way of starting a conversation by telephone was to say 'hello' because it 'can be heard ten to twenty feet away'.Edison discovered this while testing Alexander Graham Bell's prototype telephone. Bell himself preferred the rather nautical 'Ahoy, hoy!' Edison used to shout 'hello!' into telephone receivers at Menlo Park Labs while he was working on improvements to Bell's design. His habit spread to the rest of his co-workers and then to telephone exchanges until it became common usage. Before 'hello' was used, telephone operators used to say, 'Are you there?' or 'Who are you?' or 'Are you ready to talk?'Once 'hello' became standard the operators were called 'hello girls'.

'Hullo' was used at the time purely to express surprise. Charles Dickens used the word in this way in Oliver Twist (1839) when the Artful Dodger first notices Oliver with a 'Hullo, my covey! What's the row?'

'Halloo' was used to call hounds and ferrymen and was also a favourite word Edison's. When he first discovered how to record sound (18 July 1877) the word he shouted into the machine (the strip phonograph) was 'Halloo': 'I tried the experiment, first on a strip of telegraph paper, and found that the point made an alphabet. I shouted the word "Halloo! Halloo!" into the mouthpiece, ran the paper back over the steel point and heard a faint "Halloo! Halloo!' in return! I determined to make a machine that would work accurately, and gave my assistants instructions, telling them what I had discovered.'

The earliest recorded use of delegate badges saying 'Hello, My name is...' was at the telephone operators' convention in Niagara Falls in 1880. JontyD123 (talk) 12:43, 2 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Politizer talk / contribs 14:49, 2 January 2009 (UTC)

Earlier uses
I removed the references to 1826 uses via Google Books because both seem to be erroneous. The use in Report on the trade in foreign corn seems to be a scanning error on Google's part. It refers to a 'phone, so it's clearly from later than 1826. In The Every-day Book: Or Everlasting Calendar of Popular Amusements, Sports, Pastime, Ceremonies,..., I can only find holla, which might be related to hello, but probably not.

Ken Hirsch (talk) 21:05, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

Before hello
So what was the standard greeting before hello became popular? —Kloth (talk) 01:45, 5 June 2009 (UTC)


 * If we assume that (slang or short forms like) "hello" became popular starting with telephone popularization, then I believe that standard greetings before the phone were like "Good Day" (or "Bon Jour" or "Guten Tag" etc.), which are less international (but there were no need to be international without long range communications like the phone...) and probably regarded as more "sustained language" today (because other popular forms now exist) than it was before. (--Pb.marty (talk) 12:55, 14 September 2009 (UTC))


 * By the way, nowadays even "Hello" could be seen as outdated by comparison with even more modern (and shorter) forms coming from internet chats/forums and mobile phone messenging (where text as to as short as possible, because of early 2000's technology or costs, then because of lack of time when writing, and now just because of fashion!). Examples:


 * French: salut (way to say hello coming from french armies and administrations, that has spread to other organizations, mostly "underground" --mafia-- or opposed to the government --syndicates--, and then to almost everybody, in particular students and scholars from the 70's to the 90's... coming from french "salutations") -> slt
 * French: coucou (old fashioned way for french girls to say hello...) -> kikou (or kikoo) -> kk (or cc)
 * English: hi (probably short form of hello?)
 * This could perhaps be a starting point for a new section within the main article?! ;) (--Pb.marty (talk) 12:55, 14 September 2009 (UTC))

Use in other languages
Indonesians commonly use "Hello Mister" to greet westerners of any race/gender, and while it may sound abrupt to a British ear, is intended to be friendly. It seems quite revealing on how westerners are perceived to speak; I imagine it's the same in many other countries. Don't know if that's worth including. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.33.154.66 (talk) 08:42, 17 July 2009 (UTC)

hullo
From the article: "Hello may also be derived from Hullo. Hullo was in use before hello and was used as a greeting and also an expression of surprise."

I believe "hello" is also used as an expression of surprise. So is there actually a difference? Hakluyt bean (talk) 19:30, 20 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Amusingly, "Hello!" in the 1990s reverted back in slang use to an expression of surprise, but it's normally been simply a greeting for the past 170 years. Softlavender (talk) 04:15, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

Telephone?
Why would you use a separate greeting on the phone? 75.118.170.35 (talk) 19:01, 6 August 2009 (UTC)


 * I believe that the quicker/easier a communication media become the shorter the language evolves. With internet and satellite era communications (mobile phone...), we have a single worldwide network, and thousands of people to talk to, and greetings have reduced to a couple of letters (hi).  One century ago, with the telephone/telegraph, we had nation wide networks, and no more than a hundreds of relatives, and the greetings were reduced down to one single but full word (hello).  Before that, with regional communications only (horse...), and only a dozen of regular penpals, greetings were made of several words (good morning/evening...).  And even before that, when people were stuck at the scale of their village, they had plenty of time to talk with always the same few persons, so greetings were even the size of a full sentence (I wish a good morning, dear neighbour, may God bless your familly as well...). (--Pb.marty (talk) 13:10, 14 September 2009 (UTC))

Hawai'ian forms
I did not see in the main article references to the Hawai'ian Aloha. This word sounds pretty close enough to the Hello / Allo forms. But apparently originates from a completely different ethymology. May somebody comment about that? (--Pb.marty (talk) 13:12, 14 September 2009 (UTC))

Hungarian forms: (could not find the proper section) The article does say the Hungarian version when answering the phone is: Halló! Now, "I can hear you" is "Hallom" in Hungarian, and "can you hear me?" is "Hallod?" Legend has it, when Tivadar Puskás, who was Hungarian and Edison used the phone first, between themselves. And Puskás said: Can you hear me? (Hallod?) to Edison, as in his excitement he spoke Hungarian instead of English...And this was reduced to Hallo by the English language. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.96.50.46 (talk) 14:01, 25 December 2009 (UTC)

French forms
I did not see any reference to the french "salut". "Allo" is only the phone form, whereas "salut" is the popular form equivalent to "hello". In German, by comparison, I sort of remember that it is more or less the same "Hallo" everytime (except that germans born before the 70's will probably rather use short forms of "guten tag", like "'tag". I cannot edit the main article (protected page???). (--Pb.marty (talk) 13:18, 14 September 2009 (UTC))

Computer forms
I was looking for the origins of the '' command used by SMTP (email messenging protocols). ... is it an acronym? if yes, with which signification? is it related to the "hello" word?). May somebody help at this point? ;-) (--Pb.marty (talk) 13:22, 14 September 2009 (UTC))

Information lost from older wiki versions
Looking at the first version of this article, just by curiosity, I see that definitions #1 and #4 have roughly been preserved, definition #5 has been moved to the disambiguation page, but definitions #2 and #3 have been moved to wiktionary. It's not clear to me what to keep in a wikipedia article and what to move elsewhere (copy would have just been okay). (--Pb.marty (talk) 13:37, 14 September 2009 (UTC))

I'm not that experienced with editing yet...
But I get a "Page not Found" when I click on reference #19. Could someone fix it please? --Habstinator (talk) 02:34, 6 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Fixed now. For future reference, when this happens you can sometimes repair the link by copying the dead link into the search box at http://web.archive.org . Then you use that new url (the archived url) for the article. Here is the edit I did for it here, if you want an example.
 * (Also, by the way... when you post a message at a talk page like this, it's standard to post at the bottom. Thanks!) r ʨ anaɢ talk/contribs 02:40, 6 November 2009 (UTC)

Thanks! Ok, I'll do that next time I come across a broken link, and I'll keep that fact about posting at the bottom in mind. ;) --Habstinator (talk) 02:43, 6 November 2009 (UTC)

Controversy
This is not controversy this is non-sense... A man in a Texan county attacking language itself for the sake of his religion is worthy of wiki-notoriety? I really don't have a problem with religions, but something is wrong when you can't say hello because it has a "bad word" in it. Religion is supposed to be a personal spiritual presence in your life not an infectious plague. As soon as we find another hospitable life-bearing planet I'm on the first ship out of this mess (hopefully before all of america starts accepting "heaven-o"). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.193.113.198 (talk) 21:21, 17 November 2009 (UTC) Agreed —Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.246.169.56 (talk) 20:38, 8 May 2010 (UTC)

why the heck are people yelling about hello having a swear in it.there is no difference if it has a swear word i can make maybe 2-3 swears out of supercalafragilisticexpialladotiouse and when i say it nobodys like OMG you said a swear word so whats the point?HELP MEEEEEEE!anyway im speaking my thoughts.--Pokemon30 (talk) 21:39, 27 July 2011 (UTC)

Hillo
There is a passage in Jane Eyre where Mr. Rochester greets Jane with Hillo!. Should this be included anywhere? --15lsoucy (talk) 15:41, 13 December 2009 (UTC)


 * Probably. In my opinion, the article's subject matter is too narrowly defined. Historically, we have one word with a variety of forms - hello, hullo, hallo, hillo, haloo, etc. and a variety of related meanings: a huntsman's cry, an informal greeting, a telephone-specific greeting. The article focusses excessively on 'hello'. That's missing the forest for the trees. chrisb 96.52.227.71 (talk) 10:15, 1 September 2010 (UTC)

"Hallo" in Dutch
Currently the section 'cognates' claims that Dutch 'hallo' is used "when answering the telephone". It is in fact used much more widely as a greeting and when calling attention, very much akin to the English 'hello. Any websearch for common Dutch phrases will confirm this. It would be best to remove "when answering the telephone". 92.0.122.6 (talk) 20:28, 7 November 2010 (UTC)
 * And I did remove it from the table now. In fact, it's common to answer your phone with 'Met...' followed by your name. Scoub (talk) 22:08, 1 March 2011 (UTC)

Edit request from T1t2t1t2, 2 December 2010
In the hello page, please add chinese hello to the table.

T1t2t1t2 (talk) 11:23, 2 December 2010 (UTC)


 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done for now: You need to tell us exactly what the Chinese cognate is. Note the list is for words derived from "hello" itself, not for other greetings with the same meaning.  Also note "Chinese" can mean "Mandarin" or "Cantonese".  Adrian J. Hunter(talk•contribs) 12:44, 2 December 2010 (UTC)


 * Some Mandarin speakers do say 哈喽 hālóu or 哈罗 hāluó, or just "hello" itself (the latter is especially common among students and in Taiwan, I think). The former two are mostly seen as somewhat silly, I think, and I think they use it more with me (as a foreigner) than they do amongst themselves, although it does still exist. r ʨ anaɢ (talk) 02:23, 10 February 2011 (UTC)


 * Very true. I am Chinese, and this is commonly used as an informal greeting, and while the character form is generally used in writing, when spoken it is generally pronounced extremely similar to the English pronunciation of hello. This is used in Mandarin and Cantonese, and other Chinese dialects. 183.1.205.183 (talk) 08:10, 16 February 2011 (UTC)

Edit request from Ty62, 25 February 2011
edit semi-protected Telephone: A.G. Bell invented the telephone but it was a Hungarian Tivadar Puskas that invented the manually operated switch board, and his company trough Bell, marketed it world wide with success, as his employees where putting in a new installation the test operators, mostly women tested each switch line. They could be heard Q: "hallod?" (Hungarian, meaning: "can you here it?") A:"hallom!" (Hungarian, meaning: "I can hear it!") the locals in most countries took it as part of the training and adopted this world wide as the customary thing to say upon establishing a connection. Hallo became the most frequently spoken word of Hungarian origin world wide.

Ty62 (talk) 14:03, 25 February 2011 (UTC)


 * Please provide reliable sources for your proposed addition. r ʨ anaɢ (talk) 23:43, 25 February 2011 (UTC)
 * If that could be verified, it would certainly open an interesting can of worms. I for one, would be interested in the results of such research (but not ambitious enough to do it myself). ~Eric F 184.76.225.106 (talk) 22:21, 29 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Okay, I did check out Hungarian: "Hallod? Hallom!", and it does translate as: "Do you hear? I hear you!". |en|Hallod%3F%20Hallom! (Google translate).
 * And the WP page Timeline of the telephone does show: 1876: Hungarian Tivadar Puskas invented the telephone switchboard exchange (later working with Edison). Interesting; but at this point it remains a theory based on personal research. -- Sources, please. "Do you hear?" ~Eric F 184.76.225.106 (talk) 22:16, 1 March 2012 (UTC)

Stupid Animation
I thank whomever created it, you are very talented. But what the hell is it doing in this article? It seems to be waving GOODBYE! Hello is a word, not a gesticulation. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.22.152.207 (talk) 17:06, 1 April 2011 (UTC)
 * I agree with the sentiment if not the articulation. I'm removing the animation. jameslucas (" " / +) 14:19, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

hello is a greeting word used in every language — Preceding unsigned comment added by 166.147.66.42 (talk) 02:27, 18 November 2011 (UTC)

Kia ora/Cognates of Hello
The New Zealand Maori 'Kia ora' is NOT a cognate of 'hello', but a word of pre-colonial origin with it's own meaning, literally 'be well'. To suggest that it is a cognate is both false and offensive, please have it removed. - requested 13 June 2011 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.57.217.23 (talk) 05:53, 13 June 2011 (UTC)

Portuguese Alô and Olá
In Cognates sub-:

Portuguese "Alô" is actually only used in Brazil when answering the phone. In Portugal the equivalent would be "Olá" but this is normally used to greet people in a informal way, and it is not used when answering the phone.

This should be edited. 81.13.148.93 (talk) 16:40, 6 August 2011 (UTC)

Earlier printed usage of "hello": 1808
Further adventures of the boy spy in Dixie By Joseph Orton Kerbey: Page 204: It was only necessary to call "Johnny" once to get a polite "Hello"; or if Johnny called first, it was "Hello, Yank." — Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.221.182.178 (talk) 02:01, 28 October 2011 (UTC)


 * That source checks out; however, the book's setting is the U. S. Civil War (1861–1865). It is listed with a publish date of 1808, however the book's publish date and copyright were digitally scanned by Google (it looks like "1808"), but is actually 1898 (see this from same book).  ~Eric F  184.76.225.106 (talk) 02:45, 1 March 2012 (UTC)

Contradiction
Under the heading Hallo: It is used... and the example (poem) uses the word "hollo". ~Eric F 184.76.225.106 (talk) 22:01, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

Beghilos 07734
Perhaps a brief explanation of the use of "07734" in Geekdom's Beghilos language would make an interesting addition to this page.

For those readers unfamiliar: when the digits on an old-school (7-segment) digital display are: 07734, when viewed upside-down, displays the word "hello". Perhaps the most common usage was (is?) as a beeper code. 07734 is one of the earliest examples of usage for beghilos. Although most sources attribute this to originating with 70s LED calculators, I can attest to it being used with the early (mid-60s?) "nixie-tube" calculators. ~Eric F 184.76.225.106 (talk) 23:39, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

Apple DOS? Does this really apply to the salutation Hello?
I suggest removal of the Apple section. There are millions of examples of "hello" used in computers, we have no hope or reason to document them. More importantly, this is an article on the spoken word "hello" - the salutation. I can't think of any reason to document an obscure feature of an obsolete OS in this article.

I'd also argue for removal of the "hello world" section on similar grounds, but at least "hello world" is universal in all computer language examples, whereas Apple DOS 3.x is both amazingly specific and irrelevant. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.13.177.204 (talk) 16:08, 4 May 2012 (UTC)

Citation
The sentences 'Friend David, I do not think we shall need a call bell as Hello! can be heard 10 to 20 feet away. What you think? Edison - P.S. first cost of sender & receiver to manufacture is only $7.00' are not cited and can be done so as these sentences can be sourced from the citing 7 (http://www.collectorcafe.com/article_archive.asp?article=800&id=1507). Tary123 (talk) 06:45, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

Misconception
Some people says that we use "hello" when pickup the phone because of the name of graham bell's girlfriend was 'Margaret hello' but this is not correct as hello was used as a greeting before the invention of telephone. Graham bell suggested to say "ahoy" to be used when we pickup the phone — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mirza nawaid (talk • contribs) 07:11, 2 January 2013 (UTC)

Edit request on 10 April 2013
In Telephone the hallo comes form the original Hallo-girls: Hungarian switch board operators, employees of Tivadar Puskas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tivadar_Pusk%C3%A1s the inventor of the telephone switchboard he worked for Edison and Bell. Their subsidiary employed young Hungarian women that where testing the new installations not just in the US but World-wide and also training the local personal, during line testing and consequently the operation. The women speaking Hungarian, testing the lines said 1000's of times daily Q: "Hallod?"(can you hear?) A:"Hallom!"(I can hear!) So "hallo" (the -d and -m in fast speech is almost silent) became the customary greeting not just in English speaking countries but all over the world where these switchboards/systems where installed.

Ty62 (talk) 02:53, 10 April 2013 (UTC)


 * Not done; please cite a reliable source for that. Graham 87 15:15, 10 April 2013 (UTC)

Wikilinks
Suggest linking names like Dennis Ritchie and terms like Apple, BASIC, etc. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.158.139.227 (talk) 09:26, 8 August 2013 (UTC)

Where is the connection between "hello" and "hi"
IF you enter "hi" is search, it redirects to "hello". But "hello" has no entomology for "hi" - which is not an obvious contraction of "hello". ("'lo" IS a contraction, but opposite is "hi"???) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.74.43.46 (talk) 12:44, 24 April 2013 (UTC)


 * You can find etymological information at http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=hi; feel free to add it to the article.
 * Of course you don't find entomology for "hi" at this page; I believe you meant etymology. r ʨ anaɢ (talk) 14:46, 3 May 2013 (UTC)

>>>:Of course you don't find entomology for "hi" at this page Good point! Nasty little "bug". — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.74.43.46 (talk) 13:57, 27 May 2013 (UTC)


 * Actually, hi does not redirect here. It redirects to a disambiguation page (although the disambiguation page says that 'Hi' may refer to 'Hello'). —BarrelProof (talk) 22:45, 25 August 2013 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 1 April 2014
The tiny addition I would like to make is that "alo/ало" or "halo/хало" is also used in the South Slavic languages as an exclamation in conversations and, similarly to uses in diferent languages, to call attention.

Bagofsalt (talk) 18:35, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Done. Thanks! Graham 87 03:56, 2 April 2014 (UTC)

Unrelated information at "Hello World Computer Program" and "The Apple DOS HELLO Program"
I feel like the two articles about "Hello, World" and Apple DOS are only loosely related to the page. While the rest of the page is on etymology and use, these seem like odd tangents. (Especially if they're alone without other loosely related parts; what about including different ways of greeting people (I'm kidding, of course)) Shouldn't we keep the page simple and remove them? CosineP (talk) 02:43, 3 May 2014 (UTC)Cosine

Semi-protected edit request on 9 May 2014

 * Cantonese
 * 哈佬！ (Hah Loe!)
 * when friendly (informal) greeting

49.50.202.93 (talk) 13:19, 9 May 2014 (UTC)

✅ - Arjayay (talk) 14:30, 9 May 2014 (UTC)

Inconsistency
The lead says "It is attested in writing as early as the 1860s" while the very first sentence of the main body flatly contradicts the lead: "Hello, with that spelling, was used in publications as early as 1833". --MichaelMaggs (talk) 16:10, 8 July 2014 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 28 July 2014
helo!

112.208.1.96 (talk) 15:22, 28 July 2014 (UTC)when answering the phone.

If you want to suggest a change, please request this in the form "Please replace XXX with YYY" or "Please add ZZZ between PPP and QQQ". Please also cite reliable sources to back up your request, without which no information should be added to any article. - Arjayay (talk) 15:58, 28 July 2014 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: as this is already clearly discussed in the article, and you have not requested a change.

Name of person
grahm bells girlfriend name was hello he was usually using this word over a telephone...... people stolen the world......... — Preceding unsigned comment added by 136.8.2.68 (talk) 16:14, 14 September 2014 (UTC)
 * No it wasn't. Graham 87 12:27, 15 September 2014 (UTC)

Greek
Please remove Greek from the table or give an explanation because both words don't sound like they were derived from "hello". This is not a page to mention how to greet someone in as many languages as possible. --2.245.174.209 (talk) 13:00, 24 January 2015 (UTC)

Perception of "Hello" in other nations
This section is very vague. What does "in some other nations" mean? It only mentions Chinese. And Cantonese is Chinese, you included it in your table with 哈佬, which is not standard, but a recent development due to the influence of English. The with Mandarin 哈啰, which is used a lot by young people. Mandarin is not included in the table. --2.245.174.209 (talk) 13:10, 24 January 2015 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 12 September 2014
— Preceding unsigned comment added by 182.185.173.55 (talk) 07:26, 12 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Ukrainian
 * سلام واليكم!
 * when answering the telephone
 * ✅ Graham 87 14:58, 12 September 2014 (UTC)
 * I've removed it, "Peace be upon you" is not cognate to "Hello". --Shibo77 (talk) 22:42, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 7 April 2015
In the subheading Cognates, "alô" is said to be a Portuguese greeting used on the phone only in Brazil, although it is occasionally used in Portugal. In the same subheading, I would like to suggest the addition of the greeting "olá", which is the most widely used general greeting in Portugal and has the same etymology of the word "hello".

Jgpestana (talk) 23:15, 7 April 2015 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made.  Kharkiv07 Talk  00:50, 8 April 2015 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 4 August 2015
146.200.12.94 (talk) 09:23, 4 August 2015 (UTC) If you want to suggest a change, please request this in the form "Please replace XXX with YYY" or "Please add ZZZ between PPP and QQQ". Please also cite reliable sources to back up your request, without which no information should be added to, or changed in, any article. - Arjayay (talk) 13:36, 4 August 2015 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: as you have not requested a change.

Wider semantic field
Hello seems to have come from German and English - so Germanic origins. YET there are semantic differences in both.

In German the normal form is Hallo and in English it is Hello (even in the UK of 21st century rather than upper class of 1930s when Hullo might have been more prevalent). The WORD has several uses: - 1. Checking if someone is listening - telephone makes this use. Hence the TV show Allo Allo 2. Informal greeting - seems most predominant in English and less used auf Deutsch - though it is used. 3. An exclamation that something is amiss or has been missed or not thought of by the audience so addressed. THIS seems most common in German and less common in English usage. Although the policeman saying "Hello what have we got here then" shows this usage.

The German Wikipedia bears this out - but I do not know of any sources that make this clear without looking for them. Perhaps Leo or other dictionaries have this???

As for the etymplogy - Wassail - and Hail and evolving to Hello seems argued for but not supported. Non German origins like French do not seem to have any merit here, - yet are mentioned without any well argued bases. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 178.190.66.111 (talk) 20:50, 28 August 2015 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 30 September 2015
Could you include Nepali language:

Hello -हेल्लो ( pronounced as hail-loh) thank you

Pragatigh (talk) 04:35, 30 September 2015 (UTC)
 * Yes check.svg Done I listed it as a general greeting. Please follow up if it's "when answering the telephone" only. -- Sam Sailor Talk! 10:06, 30 September 2015 (UTC)

Add Link
I request you to add a link to the "Integer BASIC" word under "The Apple DOS HELLO program" section. I could not edit it as it is semi-protected.

Thank you. Kaartic (talk) 09:30, 2 November 2015 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the suggestion. I've done ths, and also added a link to Apple DOS. Graham 87 14:31, 2 November 2015 (UTC)

hello
Hello is the most common word which is used for initiate a communication. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.211.166.121 (talk) 05:47, 20 May 2015 (UTC) hello is a welcoming word hello just say it hello it feels welcoming. hi is short for hello — Preceding unsigned comment added by 163.6.34.87 (talk) 19:39, 29 February 2016 (UTC)

Alternate spellings?
"As in addition to hello, halloo,[7] hallo, hollo, hullo and (rarely) hillo also exist as variants or related words, the word can be spelt using any of all five vowels.[citation needed]" It's been lacking a citation for four years, and seems a bit silly. Halloo and hullo are sometimes seen, but does anyone seriously spell it "hollo" or "hillo"? If you ever see that it's likely a typo. The fact that this sentence gets "as an addition" mixed up with "in addition" to create the nonsensical "as in addition" suggests we're not dealing with a linguistic genius here. Maybe someone with editing rights could delete or tidy this sentence? 210.246.53.219 (talk) 09:41, 16 April 2016 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 22 April 2016
hello is used in many different language but all mean the same.

71.101.109.96 (talk) 00:30, 22 April 2016 (UTC)
 * Red question icon with gradient background.svg Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format. Datbubblegumdoe[talk – contribs] 01:56, 22 April 2016 (UTC)

Link 11 is broken
I'm not quite sure the right way to report it, but the new redirect for 11 doesn't help. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.36.82.28 (talk) 15:33, 30 January 2017 (UTC) Thanks for the note. I've fixed it using the Wayback Machine. Graham 87 12:50, 31 January 2017 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 2 February 2017
The following intro can be corrected, "Hello is a salutation or greeting in the English language. It is first attested in writing from 1833."

I've found at least two printed accounts in 1827, the earliest from the following source found on newspapers.com :

The Torch Light And Public Advertiser (Hagerstown, Maryland) page 1 · Thu, Oct 11, 1827 in an article called "The Grand Descent" (reprinted from the New England Galaxy)

another

The Wyoming Herald (Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania) · Fri, Nov 23, 1827 page 1 in an article called The Stepmother 143.85.163.18 (talk) 18:12, 2 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Red question icon with gradient background.svg Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format.  B E C K Y S A Y L E S  06:00, 3 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the note, anyway. Inspired by this request, I checked around and found that the Oxford English Dictionary lists the earliest printed use of "hello" as in 1826, so I've updated the article to reflect that. So I've answered your request, in a roundabout way. Graham 87 06:47, 3 February 2017 (UTC)

Song
Hello is also a song by Adele. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dancingkittenmagicapple (talk • contribs) 23:10, 10 February 2017 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 17 May 2017

 * The external link http://www.elite.net/~runner/jennifers/hello.htm results in a 404 and should be fixed or removed.
 * The external link http://www.life.com/image/first/in-gallery/54371/how-to-say-hello-around-the-world#index/0 does not point to valid content and should be fixed or removed. Oliver Salzburg (talk) 09:02, 17 May 2017 (UTC)
 * Yes check.svg Done. Thanks for helping to improve this article. &mdash; KuyaBriBri Talk 14:23, 17 May 2017 (UTC)
 * Thanks from me as well. I've gone and fixed the first one. Graham 87 14:35, 17 May 2017 (UTC)

"Hello, Wikipedia!" listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect Hello, Wikipedia!. Please participate in the redirect discussion if you wish to do so. signed,Rosguill talk 19:30, 22 November 2019 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 10 August 2020
Remove the “Hello World” section. This is not relevant to the specific word Hello, and is better suited elsewhere. John828171 (talk) 13:42, 10 August 2020 (UTC)
 * : I've removed the code block, as that belongs in the article "Hello, World!" program. However, the rest of the section is helpful for readers of this article, as it provides new information while not being too long to distract from the rest of the article. ◢  Ganbaruby!   (Say hi!) 13:56, 10 August 2020 (UTC)

"Halloed" listed at Redirects for discussion
A discussion is taking place to address the redirect Halloed. The discussion will occur at Redirects for discussion/Log/2020 September 11 until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. TheAwesome Hwyh  19:57, 11 September 2020 (UTC)