Anyway, the very lovely Stephen whom God preserve, asserted that Edison invented the use of the word "hello" as a greeting. That previously, we'd only had "hullo" spelt without an "e", and that it had meant an exclamation of surprise or discovery.
The display behind him showed the word "hello" with the e underlined.
I've looked in Chambers and my SOED, and no mention is made of Edison.
They both direct me to "hallo" as the primary spelling, and the first meaning listed is indeed an exclamation of surprise or discovery.
The web, of course, says many contradictory things, with little proof.
I want to ignore the spelling part. We're talking spoken language, and the "hello" versus "hallo" or "hullo" thing doesn't interest me much.
I want to know which of the following is true:
- "hello" was used as a face to face greeting before Edison, but he was responsible for suggesting that that was how one should answer the telephone (as opposed to Bell's suggestion of "ahoy").
- "hello" was not, or rarely, used as a face to face greeting before the telephone; Edison suggested it for the phone; it caught on; and then also caught on for face to face greetings. (As asserted by Fry).
Presumably the answer is to find it in dialogue in novels written before the invention of the telephone. I may have to re-read my Austen.
I may also have to start answering the phone with "Ahoy".
