hello, int. and n.
(həˈləʊ)
[var. of hallo, q.v.]
An exclamation to call attention; also expressing some degree of surprise, as on meeting any one unexpectedly.
A. as int. a. Also as a greeting.
| 1883 Breadwinners 241 Hello, Andy! you asleep. 1888 Black Adv. House-boat xxiii, Hello—here's more about evolution. 1967 Listener 5 Oct. 427/2 ‘Hello,’ I thought, ‘Now she's overdoing it.’ 1971 Farmer & Stockbreeder 23 Feb. 3/3 Next week..we shall say hello again to most of you, and to 100,000 new readers as well. |
b. Used as an answer to a telephone call.
| 1892 Kipling Lett. of Travel (1920) 94 A..millionaire..clawing wildly at the telephone... ‘Hello!.. Yes. Who's there?’ 1922 S. Lewis Babbitt iv. 41 On the telephone they said only: ‘..Oh, Hello, 343?’ 1973 J. Wainwright Pride of Pigs 169 She..picked up the receiver, waited for the S.T.D. pips to stop, said ‘Hello?’ and..recognised her brother's voice. |
B. as
n.| 1897 M. Kingsley W. Africa 45 The amount of ‘Hellos’ ‘Are you theres?’ and ‘Speak louder, pleases’..that must at such times be poured out and wasted..before the break [in telephonic connexion] is realised. |
| Comb. 1889 ‘Mark Twain’ Connecticut Yankee 176 The humblest..hello-girl..could teach the highest duchess. 1895 Critic 6 Apr. 263/2 The awful nuisance of the central [telephone] office, and..what is familiarly known as the ‘hello-girl’. 1928 Daily Chron. 4 Feb. (headline) Brave Hello Girls. 1971 New Scientist 17 June p. iv, That was the day we said Goodbye to the Hello girls. |
Hence
hello v., to shout
hello!| 1895 Critic 6 Apr. 263/2 There will be no helloing girl to ask you every minute, ‘Have you finished?’ while you are straining your ears to hear what the person you are talking to is saying. |