It is one of the most familiar words in everyday life, spoken casually in conversations, sung in pop songs, used in films and woven into advertising slogans. Yet the English greeting “hello” has a surprisingly recent history in print, even though its spoken roots stretch back centuries.

According to a report by the BBC, it has been 200 years since “hello” first appeared in print, making its earliest known debut on 18 January 1826 in a Connecticut newspaper, The Norwich Courier. What began as a modest word on a news page has since grown into one of the most widely recognised greetings in the modern world.

By the 1850s, the word had made its way across the Atlantic to Britain, appearing in publications such as the London Literary Gazette and gradually gaining wider acceptance in print. Much like everyday greetings in other languages, “hello” reflects aspects of the English-speaking world, with its many variations, shortened forms and tonal shifts often revealing clues about the speaker’s background, context or intent.

Today, “hello” is everywhere – from phone calls and emails to popular culture. It features in famous film lines such as Jerry Maguire’s “You had me at hello”, and Scarface’s “Say hello to my little friend!”, as well as in branding slogans like Motorola’s “Hello Moto” and Wonderbra’s iconic “Hello boys”.

The origins of hello

Despite its everyday familiarity, linguists say “hello” is relatively young as a written greeting. While it only became common in print in the 19th century, its spoken forms date back much further.

The Oxford English Dictionary traces possible origins to Old High German “halâ,” a cry used to hail a ferryman, and to “halloo,” a hunting call urging hounds forward. Early spellings varied widely, including “hullo”, “hillo” and “holla” – the latter thought to come from the 15th-century French “hol,” meaning “stop!” or “whoa!”. In English texts, the OED lists “hollo” as the earliest form, dating to the late 16th century.

Linguists say such variation reflects regional pronunciation and the difficulty of tracing spoken language through written records alone.

“Especially in the example of ‘ello’ which shows the prevalent – though now stigmatised – feature of h-dropping,” said Simon Horobin, professor of English language and literature at Magdalen College, Oxford, referring to the class-based stereotype associated with dropping the letter ‘h’.

“But for origins and early history,” he added, “we are dependent upon written evidence, which is patchy at the best of times. For a colloquial word like this, which would have appeared much earlier and more frequently in speech than in writing, it is especially tricky to establish a definite timeline.”

Choosing a ‘standard’ hello

The modern spelling of “hello” was not inevitable. Horobin explained that standardisation often depends on lexicographers, who select spellings based on common usage.

“They base their choice on the relative prevalence of a particular spelling, though it’s necessarily somewhat provisional and arbitrary,” he said.

By the time the Oxford English Dictionary was first published in 1884, “hello” had emerged as the dominant form. Yet notable figures preferred alternatives: Charles Dickens regularly used “hullo”, while inventor Alexander Graham Bell favoured “halloo” and even suggested “ahoy!” as the ideal telephone greeting.

It was Bell’s rival, Thomas Edison, who pushed “hello”, believing it would be clearer over poor phone lines. His influence helped cement the word’s place as the standard English greeting.

What greetings say about us

Linguists argue that greetings reveal subtle social cues. Variations of “hello” can signal age, geography or mood – from the clipped “hi” to elongated forms like “heyyy”.

“It can be pronounced and inflected in many different ways, and these subtle intonational contours can change its meaning,” said Alessandro Duranti, professor of linguistic anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“For example, when someone says ‘hello’ with a stretched final vowel, it can question what the other person just said, as in ‘Hello, are you paying attention?’ or ‘Hello, you must be kidding.'”

Globally, greetings take on different cultural shades. Germanic languages favour firmer sounds such as “hallo” or “hallå”, while Romance languages use lyrical forms like “hola” and “olá”. Some greetings reflect history – from Afrikaans “hallo” with Dutch roots to Tetum “óla”, shaped by Portuguese influence.

Yet Duranti cautioned against drawing direct links between greetings and national character.

“I would be careful making that kind of correlation,” he said. “But there is one aspect of greetings that is sensitive to the social structure of a society, which is that equals greet each other in different ways from people of different statuses.”

Hello in the digital age

Technology has further reshaped how greetings are used. Messaging apps and social media have made conversation continuous, sometimes eliminating the need for a formal “hello”.

“If you think about WhatsApp, we’re basically always in conversation – we’re always online,” said Christian Ilbury, senior lecturer in linguistics and English language at the University of Edinburgh.

“When someone asks you how your day is or whether you’re going to be on time for the meal, you don’t always have to say ‘hello’ first.”

Ilbury has observed creative digital spellings such as “helloooo”, “hiiiiiii” and “heyyyyy”, alongside the growing use of emojis – particularly the waving hand – as substitutes for the word itself.

“The most obvious thing to say is that people now sometimes use an emoji – the wave – in place of the word ‘hello’,” he said.

Still evolving

Two centuries after its first appearance in print, “hello” remains in flux – stretched, shortened, replaced or sometimes omitted altogether. Yet linguists say the purpose of the greeting has stayed constant.

Whether spoken, typed or symbolised with an emoji, “hello” continues to serve as a simple act of recognition, a way of announcing one’s presence and inviting acknowledgement in return.