How old is the word "hello"?
What's the dark brown secret behind French <<ça va>>? What are
all the different ways Shakespearean characters say "hello"? All that coming
up in the very first Words Unravelled. Hello and welcome to Words Unravelled, where we
untangle the exciting stories behind many of the words that you use today. I'm Rob Watts.
I present the YouTube channel Rob Words, where I talk about word facts and language fun,
and I'm joined by Jess Zafarris. I'm the author of the books Useless Etymology, Once Upon a
Word, and Words from Hell. And I manage the blog Useless Etymology, where I dig into the exciting,
curious stories behind words you know and love, and some you don't. I do enjoy your books, that's
why we're working together on this because we both have a great deal of shared interest
in the magic of the English language. Yes, so for our first episode, we're going to begin
where many conversations begin — with a greeting, and in fact, a number of greetings. Yeah, because
when you first think about it, you think, there's only a couple of ways that we greet each other,
and then when you start to really look into it, you realize that there are many ways in which
we kick off a conversation. Not only that, but it's changed a great deal over time. The way
Shakespearean characters greeted one another is not the same way we greet one another today, and
the way we greet one another today is not the same as we did 200 years ago. Indeed, and probably the
most common way that we greet each other today, I would say, is "hello." That's right, tell us a
bit more about "hello." Right, absolutely. This one always surprises people. It's one of the facts
that I think bends people's minds the most about language because it's such a ubiquitous term.
But it wasn't coined and didn't become a standard greeting until the 1870s with the introduction
of the Bell Telephone. That's amazing that a staple of our language could have come about so
late. So what's it got to do with the invention of the telephone? Well, so originally it is a
variation on older words. There are versions recorded like "hallo" and "hollo" with the O's
and A's, but all of these terms were ways that you would hail someone from a distance. So say
you were on a ship over there and your friend was on a ship over there, you might call "hallo!"
or "hollo!" to get their attention. Maybe you're walking up to a property and you see someone from
a distance, you announce your presence using one of those terms. But they were always, they always
implied a distance, which makes sense that it would then become a term for a term we use on
the telephone, which was the first means of introducing ourselves or speaking to other people
from afar using technology. I mean, it literally means "far sound," doesn't it? "Telephone," in
fact, in German, uh, it's called "fernsprecher," or it used to be called a "ferner," which
literally means "far speaker." That's fantastic, I love that. Um, so initially more in the, like,
distance sense that we might understand today. Alexander Graham Bell wanted to use the word
"ahoy" as a telephone greeting, which honestly, I vastly prefer. And there are references to that
in, like, The Simpsons and a number of other, yes, that's right, Mr. Burns, he answers the phone with
"ahoy-hoy." Fantastic. By the way, I looked up, um, where "ahoy" comes from because I suspected it
might come up, and there's, uh, a greeting that's still used today in Dutch which is just "hoi," and
that's where it comes from. It's the Dutch version of "hi." But obviously, the Dutch were competitors
on the high seas with the English back in the day, so we ended up taking their word "hoi," sticking
"ah" on the front of it, and we got "ahoy." That's amazing, I love that. Um, Alexander Graham Bell
didn't get his way because of Thomas Edison who I would say was probably the better marketer
or brand figure, and he's the one who proposed "hello" as this, like, distance term. And he
was probably playing on those older terms like "hallo" and "hollo." I like a good "hello."
"Hello." The word “hullaballoo” is based on “hollo” and was originally most commonly
spelled “holloballoo” as a result and was originally commonly spelled "hollow," "ballow,"
as a result, in, uh, there was a 1762 novel, "The Life and Adventures of Sir Lancelot Greaves" by
Tobias Smollett, it's also spelled "holloballoo": "I would there was a blister on this plaguy tongue
of mine for making such a holloballo.” Oh, that's beautiful. "Hullabaloo" is quite a satisfying word
as it is, but out of a "hollo-ballo." Absolutely, but it, again, it implies that kind of loud
noisiness rather than just a simple greeting. One of the ways in which Edison got his
way with this, by the way, is that, um, he somehow managed to get telephone manufacturers
in their instruction booklets, in the phone books, to standardize what they suggested your opening
gambit should be when you picked up the telephone. And do you know what they recommended you should
say at the end? What did they recommend? A curt, "That is all." That's it? Oh, I love it, I
love it. And the people who were saying these, they were called "hello girls." They were the
telephone operators, as you see in old photos and videos of people connecting calls. It was
almost exclusively young women doing those roles, so they were called the "hello girls." Oh, I like
that. But that word has caught on really widely in lots of different languages. They all just
have a variation of "hello." Absolutely. It's, it moved from, uh, English into the whole world
of telephone communication across the world. Yeah, in, in, in here in Germany, it's...it's "hello,"
in France, it's "hallo." Do you know what it is in Italian? What is it? It's "pronto." "Pronto."
Oh, interesting. I said it with a Spanish accent, but it's "pronto." And it means, just
means ready, as in, "I am ready to begin my conversation with you." And then in, like,
sort of slangy American English, you have, um, "pronto" means, like, do something quickly, which
I'm assuming is an adaptation of that. Yeah, I guess it must be. I guess another Italian
one I think that interests me is the word, uh, "ciao." Um, do you know the literal meaning
of the word "ciao"? No, I don't. It means "slave," no really. It's a variation on—and I'm
going to butcher the pronunciation because I do not speak Italian—but uh schiavo, which is from
the Medieval Latin sclavus, meaning “slave." The idea is “I am your obedient servant." Wow, right?
It's so deferential. Do you know I think "Ciao" is probably the most universal salutation because you
can use "Ciao" in just about any European country, and people won't even think you're being cute
and using Italian; they will just take it as a salutation. Like, you can say "Ciao" to someone in
English, and they won't think, "Oh, that person's speaking Italian to me"; it's just a legit way
to say goodbye, usually, rather than hello, although in Italian, it can mean "Hello" as well,
right? Absolutely, it's a kind of universal "I'm meeting you" or "I'm departing," and I think, uh,
I think in English, you're correct; it's more of a "see you later." And here in Germany, you can say
"Ciao" to say goodbye as well, and you can say it in French as well. So I think if you're only
going to learn one term, at least for goodbye, it should be "Ciao." Yeah, I think it's a little
easier to say across languages than "Hello," too, because that H can sometimes be tricky for certain
dialects and accents. So, uh, tell me about some other greetings. I mean, one of the questions that
I get a lot when I tell people about "Hello" is, you know, what did we say before that? Surely
people have been saying hello forever. So tell me, what are some other ways that we have greeted
one another throughout time? Well, I think a good place to look for greetings is Shakespeare because
in his plays, there are all manner of them. I've written a few of them down for you, just give me
a second. "Cheer" is a Shakespearean greeting, that's right. "What cheer," in particular. Right,
um, and for example, it's used by Hortensio in Taming of the Shrew. He says to Katherine,
"Mistress, what cheer?" And she says, "Faith, as cold as can be." That's wonderful. I like what
"cheer," though. It kind of assumes that you're already doing great, so, like, "What happiness is
happening in your life right now?" It's a little bit better than, like, "What's up?" And this
term is still around in English, particularly in British English, and even more specifically than
that, in the southwest of England, particularly London and East Anglia, and the so-called "Home
Counties," where the word "wotcher" is used as a greeting. Goodness, I never... I knew that term,
but I never once connected it with "What cheer." Oh my goodness, that's wonderful, you've blown my
mind! "Wotcher" comes from... Well, it appears in an episode, not an episode, in one of the Harry
Potter films. I did make a note of who said it, it's not... That can't be... That's a real
character, oh, they all have—Tonks—they all have wild names. But no, yeah, I think that's
probably where I first encountered it, too, because, you know, that was definitely a big part
of my childhood. Yeah, I mean, and I think it baffled quite a lot of American viewers, that one,
actually. There's a lot of quite cute localized greetings in England, I don't know about in the
US where you are, but in, for example, my part of England, which is called the East Midlands, which
includes Nottingham, Robin Hood's "home county," well, actually, actually, that's disputed, I'm
not going to get into that, um, Derbyshire, where I'm from, and Leicestershire, we say "Ay up, me
duck" when we greet one another. Can you say that for me again? I can. "Ay up, me duck." What does
that mean? So the salutation, as such, is "ay up" and "me duck" is "my dear" or "my love." Where I'm
from, we say "duck," and it's perfectly normal for one fellow to refer to another fellow as "duck."
I mean, we call everyone "me duck," there. Um, and then, yeah, you've got "ay up" and now,
supposedly, the story goes that that comes from an Old Norse term meaning "watch out," basically,
and that does make sense because, you know, the Danes, they were in that part of England,
it was part of the Danelaw, so there are little dialect terms from Old Norse and the Vikings that
do find their way into our language. And actually, speaking of um the Harry Potter bafflement,
Angelina Jolie once used "ay up me duck" in front of a crowd as she, um, introduced Jack O'Connell
who is a, a local lad from my around my way who's, um, come good in Hollywood. Or at least, you know,
he was kind of the toast of the town 10 years ago. Not heard an awful lot of him since, but she, she
welcomed him onto stage with "ay up me duck." Um, how did that land? Confusion like, did she stick
the landing on that one? Or 'cause I, she nailed it all right. I mean, and, and Dolly Parton also
jumped on the bandwagon, but, um, just no one knew what on Earth they were going on about. A bit like
your reaction then when I said it, like, what is that collection of nonsense syllables? The, uh,
the "ay up" kind of, uh, evokes, um, you know, "What's up?" or, um, "Heads up," based on your,
yeah. No, it totally does. That, that's exactly the kind of direction that it goes in. But I've
digressed, haven't I? From Shakespeare, sorry. I mean, you mentioned localized greetings, and I
wanted to mention I'm from the American South, um, so you know, this is more Southwest, but the term
like "howdy" more or less has, has a surprisingly, like, um, proper and old, uh, origin. It's
from, like, it's, it's a reduction of, by several degrees, of like, "How, how do ye do?
How do you do?" Um, "How do ye?" And originally, like, "Huet dest thou?" Um, from the 14th century.
But it's basically like a series of contractions over time from the 14th century, um, all the
way to the, the 1720s. So, so it's interesting. Another interesting like time warp for you is that
"howdy" is a good deal older than "hello." Yeah, there you go. There you go. And that, that does
bring me back to my next Shakespearean greeting, one that actually people do associate more with
the United States or rather Native American culture, and that is "how." Yeah, Shakespeare
regularly uses his characters regularly just say "how" to greet one another or "how now." Indeed,
"how now, brown cow?" Yeah, and that, yeah, that's used in "As You Like It," "how, how sweet queen,"
appears in "Hamlet." Uh, and there, there are two, two more examples that I want to pull out from
Shakespeare, and there is, um, actually they're used back to back in "Richard III" by citizen
number three and citizen number one, or First Citizen and Third Citizen. Uh, they, they greet
one another with, "Neighbors, Godspeed," and "Give you good tomorrow, sir," both of which are ways of
saying hello, even though actually "Godspeed" now might be something we'd somewhat ironically, uh,
say to someone on departure, as, as with "Give you good tomorrow," which sort of indicates that you
want them to have a, a good tomorrow, I suppose, or a good morning tomorrow, as I recall. I, I
might have to look this one up, um, but I, I, that one does have an interesting origin, and I'll
find out before we continue, or, or, well, as we continue. But, um, one thing that I think
is interesting here is that a lot of greetings in the past tended to be time-based, like "Good
day," "Good tomorrow," um, "Good afternoon," "Good evening," um, or "Good e'en" was sometimes, uh,
shortened to that. So, um, you know, I think that was, that was as common as it is, say, in German
today, with like, "Guten tag," or, "bonjour" in French. Indeed, yeah, that makes, that makes
a lot of sense, and we should get on to, uh, some of the words you've just said there a little
bit later when we talk about how we bid "adieu" to one another, but I think that's something we
should do at the end of the podcast. I think so too, um, so, "morrow" means morning. Um, it's,
it, it was earlier version for, for morning, um, and, uh, looks like it comes from, looks like
it dates back to Old English, more or less, um, and "good tomorrow" was very, very common, and
it over "good morning." Well, that makes perfect sense, yeah, yeah, so "tomorrow" is, yeah, is
the next, the next morning, morning, yeah, okay, did you have anything else you wanted to, to, to,
to get onto, Jess? So, one thing that I think is a little bit interesting is like, um, a couple,
a couple elements, um, the word "greet" itself, um, is from the Old English "gretan" meaning to
come into contact with someone, um, so some, to, to greet someone in Old English wasn't quite the
way we use it now, um, the way we use "greeting" now is almost more like a meeting, whereas, uh,
back then, uh, "greet" had a lot of meanings, including, um, seeking something or finding
someone, saluting someone, even attacking someone, like greeting someone in battle was also just as,
as accurate as, uh, attacking them in battle, um, and it's it's originally from, uh, a source
meaning to call out, much like "hello" is. So, I think that's pretty interesting, and then it's
good, yeah, it's good to know that, that to greet, I mean, to greet someone in battle does sound
rather, uh, twee, right? Oh, yeah, I, I greet, boy, did I give him a good greeting. Oh, no, no,
no, no, he, he means that he actually did fight him, he didn't just wave hello from, from
across the field, um, and then I also, the, the word "salute" is often, at least in American
English, I feel like it has more of a military, um, implication these days, but, um, to say that
you, you know, salute them, originally meant, uh, to, I mean, you, I suppose you could also say,
um, that "salute" means to praise someone as well, um, but it ultimately meant, um, greeting or, or
greetings or good health. Um, it's from the Latin "salus," which meant greetings and good health,
literally, um, which I think is interesting, the, the original source is related to, um, the
word "safe" or the Latin word for "safe." Ah, so a salutation is a hope that someone is safe,
happy, and healthy. That brings me onto something, if I may, that I found out while looking up
salutations from around the world. Because in Thailand, the old standard greeting was something
called the wai, which literally means salute, in a way. It's a gesture, and it's a gesture that
Thai people continue to do and consider a very, very important part of their culture. It's where
they put their hands together in a sort of a, you know, a prayer position and just bow the head
slightly, and that's called wai. And that was the standard greeting until the 1940s during what's
called the Thai cultural revolution when then the country stopped being an absolute monarchy and
became a constitutional monarchy, and a rather keen dictator issued a decree saying that the
standard salutation should change. And this is what the decree was from his office. He said,
"The prime minister has considered the matter and believes that in order to enhance the honor
of our people and our nation, the order has been given to strongly urge all public servants to say
'Sawasdee' to one another when meeting for the first day." What does "Sawasdee" mean? Well, it's
actually got the same roots, believe it or not, as the word swastika. Oh no! Because, yeah, yeah.
Well, I mean, you say, "Oh, oh no," but it's not inherently affiliated. Indeed, it's not. And
actually, if you do go to Asia, you'll still see swastikas all over the place without any
of the stigma that the Nazis attached to the symbol. It comes from a Sanskrit word that means
prosperity and good luck. Of course. So, that's much more positive. Indeed. But this was not an
established way of saying hello in Thai before then. This was an idea that the dictator had
picked up just from some guy he met and decided, "Yeah, I like that. Let's start using that." Did
it work? He was like, "Is it now a more common greeting?" Interesting. It is the greeting there,
and it's also a word for prosperity, but it is the greeting. A little side fact about Thai, if I
may. When you greet someone, well, for you and I, we'd use different greetings in Thailand because
I would say, "Sawasdee krap," and you would say, "Sawasdee kha," because depending on your
gender, so the gender of the speaker, you say a different greeting. Interesting. So, I would
say that to anyone regardless of their gender. And vice versa, huh. Yeah, if you're trying to be
polite to them. It's not just about the greeting. When you say please, all thank you as well, you
would also put a woman would put "kha," and a guy would put "krap." You gender yourself. That's very
interesting. I wonder. Yeah, that's, I wonder as, you know, gender identity becomes more flexible
around the world how that will evolve the way other languages are gendered. I'm sure it's
already happening, but my visibility into it is limited. Well, I mean, Thailand is famously
somewhere where gender fluidity is accepted in a way that it isn't accepted in other parts of
the world, but as yet, they haven't tackled that aspect of their language. Fair enough. Though
your mention of the "wai" reminds me of the term "namaste," which literally means "I bow to
you." So, I think that's kind of a nice sentiment. One of my, yeah. Well, actually, that bow is
exactly the same bow as the Thai are deploying. It's something that they got from India. Oh,
excellent. That's wonderful. One of my favorite, I'd say, greetings from another country. I guess
it's two languages, but in Arabic or in Hebrew, I like "salam" and "shalom" from the same source
just because "as-salamu alaykum" means "peace be upon you." It feels very comforting and friendly.
Yeah, particularly now. It's nice to stress the similarities rather than the differences. What
else have we got? Oh, oh, oh. I wanted to get into some French. Oh, I love a little French. Yeah, I
mean, it's not actually the greeting. It's what do you say next after the greeting in French that I
want to talk about because as in many languages, the thing you say after you've said hello is to
inquire how someone is. "Ça va?" Precisely. Yes, and you can have a whole conversation with "Ça
va?" Friends because it's both the question and the answer. Yeah, "Ça va?" How are you? "Ça
va?" I'm fine. "Ça va?" How are you back? "Ça" reminds me. There was like an... There was the
Budweiser ad, the "Whassup?" ad where the whole conversation is just the word "whassup." You're
right, actually. I thought of it. But it's just like that, isn't it? But it's even more efficient
because it's just four letters and two words. But the story behind "Ça va?" which means "how's
it going?" You know, quite literally, that's what it means. Is more interesting than "How's
it going?" though because it's not inquiring how your day is going. We're actually talking here
about the more formal version of "Ça va?" It comes from "comment allez-vous," right? Which is,
again, "how's it going?" But that phrase is short for "Comment allez-vous à la selle" which means
"how are your stools?" That's fantastic. I didn't know this. Right. So, okay. So, I write disclaimer
here. I haven't found a single English language source on this, but I have found a lot of French
websites that claim that this is the case. And I'm not gonna question it because I don't have
the means to disprove it myself. Do you know, yeah, why stools? So, the word "stool" in French
means the same as it does in English. As in, it's very similar to the word "stool" in so far as
it's something you sit on and it's also what you emit into the toilet. But the phrase "Comment
allez-vous à la selle" comes from the early days of medicine when what was considered good
way to gauge someone's overall health? Oh no, was the quality of their bowel movements. I
don't know how hands-on they got here, Jess, which I think is what you're fearing. But how is
your stool's health today? Exactly. Supposedly, the question perhaps that a physician might pose
or that, you know, one might ask a close friend, very close friend, on greeting them, shortly after
bidding them hello. "Bonjour, how's it all going down there?" Yeah, that's incredible. Nice and
fresh. Yeah, so the... A perfectly normal French conversation. Though the speakers may not realize
this is what he's saying, is, "Hello, how's your poo?" "My poo's fine, thank you." "How's your
poo?" "Oh, yes, yes, my poo is also fine." Oh, this is extraordinary! I'm sad I didn't know this
before writing my book, "Words from Hell," because it's very pertinent to several of the chapters
in there. I don't think it's very widely known in the English-speaking world, so let's take
that as our first "Words Unravelled" exclusive. Almost sounds several hundred years old. It almost
sounds too funny to be true. It's incredible, and you often find that things that do sound too good
to be true are. But let's just hope that one is. I do think it's interesting that like so many
languages have a goodbye, a farewell that has something to do with, like, you know, "I'll see
you when we're dead." Sort of implying like, yeah, like, like a, and, uh, and things along
those lines. Anything that means like "to God" sort of implies it's more of a final farewell,
especially since we were talking about French. Like "au revoir" versus "adieu" is like "I'll
never see you again," so "see you in heaven or wherever else," and then the other one is "until
I see you again." So, I do think it's interesting. It feels a little fatalistic. But do you know
what? I went to Japan last year, and I had been told before I went that the standard way of saying
goodbye, and I think this is quite widely known, is "sayonara," right? But the first time I used
it, someone said, "Don't say 'sayonara' to me. That basically sounds like you're saying, 'I'm
going outside to die now, goodbye.' It's like a final farewell." So yeah, you're not supposed to
say that to say goodbye. I wish I could tell you what you're actually supposed to say, but it has
momentarily slipped my mind. I did make a little video about it if anyone's interested, though.
I suppose you could also interpret "adieu" or "adios" in Spanish as being a little more hopeful,
like maybe, "May God go with you," sort of like the term "goodbye," which I believe you, uh,
brought some info on. I did indeed, yes, because, again, it's a word that we take for granted, but
it's got a really interesting story. So I mean, there are a couple of theories, but one of them
is definitely more convincing than the other, and that is that "goodbye" is short for, as we've
just talked about, "God be with you." Indeed, yeah, the other theory is that it's short for
"God by you," but as we were about to hear, that doesn't quite fit with the early citations
of "goodbye" and how it was spelled. Because this is where the story gets interesting. So yeah,
sure, the "God" turned into "good," you know, why that is, it's because most of the ways that
we say goodbye, um, they have "good" in them. Or, you know, most greetings have. You could also say
goodbye by saying, you know, "good day," "good day to you," "I'm out," indeed. So the "God" turned
into "good," basically, through not conflation, but through confusion, really. But the "bye"
bits, which, so "bye" is not a word, you know, before "goodbye" comes along. You know, we say
"bye-bye" now, but that's just referencing the word "goodbye." You know, and the earliest
spellings of "goodbye" are "God." Right? So you've got your "God," and then the rest of the
word is "b," "w," "y," "e." So the "ye" at the end is "ye," the plural of "you," or it might
just be a shortened way of saying "you," which is fine. You, we use it a bit like that now. But
the "b" and "w" in the middle are abbreviations, text speak, text-style abbreviations of "be"
and "with." That's amazing. You end up with "good," so you basically end up with the word
"goodbye" with a "w" in it that falls away as people start to understand it as, you know, these
two parts, "good" and "bye." That's interesting, too, because initialisms and acronyms are very
rare before like the 1850s. They simply weren't a thing that people did very often, but I could
guess, this is pure speculation, but I could guess that "God be with you" would appear frequently
in, say, religious texts or writings or letters, where, you know, since you're writing it out, it
might be more likely for you to use a shorthand. I know that a lot of religious texts were also used
shorthand that's kind of hard to read for your modern reader, so I wonder if it has something
to do with that. No, you've hit the nail on the head. I think this way of writing "goodbye" with
the "b" and the "w" is from the end of letters and little notes to one another that people were
writing and got bored of repeatedly writing the same thing at the end. Of course, we all and skew
toward laziness in the end, right? We shorten, we use shorthand increasingly over time. We invent
new ways of communicating shorthand. So, very cool. Yeah, we skew towards laziness is a good way
of explaining so very many of the quirks of the English language. I mean, that's where we get like
"hey" and "hi," did you? So, when I was a kid, um, this doesn't happen anymore. Saying "hey" as a
greeting is completely fine. But when I was a kid, I was told, like, "don't say 'hey,' it's too
casual." The teachers would say, "hey is for horses, say 'hello.'" Which is so funny because
I'm pretty sure "hey," like, and I'm not just pretty sure, I'm aware, "hey" and "hi" are more
likely or older terms for, you know, at least saluting someone, even if it's from a distance.
That's the one takeaway from this is that that "hello" is just some upstart, right? We've only
been using it for a very short amount of time. Well, I think we've covered all that
we can on greetings, salutations, and goodbyes. I think so. This has been a good
one, and I think we're off to a great start, and we have a lot more to talk about after the
beginning of the conversation. Right? Yeah. And I look forward to all of the different areas we're
going to cover in the upcoming podcast. Thank you so much, Jess. Thank you. And everybody, tune
in next time. We're looking forward to bringing you more magical word facts and unraveling the
threads of the English language. That is all.
