Name: The history of 'hello' - 6 Minute English
Uploaded: 2022-04-27T04:11:34.000Z
Duration: 6 min 16 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Catherine: We both started with what is probably

and one of the first words English language

we're digging a little deeper into the world

of greetings and the fascinating history of 'hello'.

Rob: Surprisingly, the word 'hello' is not as old

as you might think. But when did it first appear

in print in English? Was it: a) in the 1890s,

Catherine: Well, I think English changes really quickly,

Rob: First, greetings. They can be a bit of a minefield.

A subject full of unpredictable difficulties.

Catherine: While in many places a handshake or bow

Rob: Awkward. Should you kiss? How many times?

Catherine: No, Rob - definitely an air-kiss!

Close to the cheek, but don't touch. Much safer.

Rob: Greetings are the subject of a new book,

by former British diplomat Andy Scott, called

One Kiss or Two: In Search of the Perfect Greeting.

Here he is on a BBC radio show Word of Mouth.

and using those verbal and physical rituals

that we have and we can get in such a muddle

or even testing our bonds and our relationships

our intentions towards each other, despite

the fact we might not necessarily be conscious

Catherine: Scott says we need to communicate

our intentions to each other and acknowledge

Rob: Well, that's what greetings do. One word he uses

to mean 'relationship' or 'connection' is bond.

Catherine: And we do it through rituals -

So there are the phrases such as 'hello',

and as well as the physical rituals - handshakes,

Rob: Though he also said we sometimes want

to test our bonds. We might want to check

if our friendship has grown by offering something

warmer than usual - like a hug instead of a handshake.

Now, Scott acknowledges how difficult greetings can be

to get in a muddle. If you get in a muddle,

You might get in a muddle if one person expects two

Catherine: Though Scott does believe that the details

don't really matter, because another important

purpose of greetings is to reduce tension.

So if you get it wrong, just laugh about it.

we really shouldn't get in a muddle about, 'hello'.

Catherine: Let's listen to Dr Laura Wright,

a linguist from Cambridge University, also

speaking on the BBC Word of Mouth radio programme.

Dr Laura Wright: It starts as a distant hailing:

"I see you miles over there and I've got to

yell at you." It's not until the invention of telephones

we really get to use hello as a greeting to each other,

and even then it wasn't initially used as a greeting,

it was used more as an attention-grabbing device:

"You are miles away, the line is about to be cut,

I need to attract the attention of the operator as well."

And so everybody would call 'hello' to each other

Catherine: Laura says 'hello' hasn't always

meant 'hello' - originally it was just a shout

And we call this kind of shouting hailing.

it could sound like a 'hollo'! Or a 'hulloa'!

Catherine: We continued this kind of hailing

People would keep repeating 'hello, hello'

And before long, this became the actual way

Subtitles ListPlay Video

The history of 'hello' - 6 Minute English

awkward

conscious

ritual

grab