When I answer the phone, I usually say, \u201chello?\u201d I think most people do. We really don\u2019t think about it, it\u2019s just instinctive\u2026 hello is just \u201cwhat you say\u201d when you answer the phone. Why is that? Well, it turns out that the guy that invented the telephone suggested answering the phone with \u2014 not hello \u2014 but \u201cahoy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now this seems like a pretty benign subject\u2026but just like about everything these days, the subject contains rumors and hoaxes. One answers the phone and says, \u201chello.\u201d Why hello? Well, here\u2019s the story making the rounds. Hello was used because hello was the name of Alexander Graham Bell\u2019s girlfriend. Margaret Hello was the first person with whom Bell conversed on his newly invented phone. Sounds far-fetched, romantic, or maybe stupid, but I guess it would be nice to honor your girlfriend by using her name as a greeting. Of course there are a few issues with this story. One \u2014 do you usually call your girlfriend by their last name? Another problem with the story is that Bell didn\u2019t have a girlfriend \u2014 he was already married when he invented the telephone. His wife\u2019s name was Mabel Gardiner Hubbard (she took the name Mabel Bell after marriage.) And \u2014 she wouldn\u2019t have been conversing on the phone with her husband, because she was deaf since childhood.<\/p>\n
At the time Bell invented the telephone, the term hello was being used as a word to garner attention \u2014 such as, \u201cHello, what are you doing?\u201d Or \u201cHello, who is there?\u201d Hello wasn\u2019t used as a greeting at all. People just didn\u2019t use hello as a greeting \u2014 that would have been considered rude. They used the traditional Good Morning, Good Day, or Good Evening. When Bell used the phone, he preferred to use \u201cAhoy,\u201d which is basically a nautical greeting.<\/p>\n
Thomas Edison gets the credit for the use of hello when answering the phone. Edison offered and used \u201chello\u201d as a standard greeting when using the telephone. He actually suggested the term because there was a need for a greeting that allowed a person to get the attention of the person on the other end of the line. At the time, telephones were an open line, which meant that phones were always connected, one just had to pick up the instrument and start talking.<\/p>\n
Bell\u2019s \u201chello\u201d won out, over \u201cahoy,\u201d as the accepted greeting when answering the phone. So today, we don\u2019t have to\u201d talk like a pirate\u201d every time we pick up the phone\u2026 you can thank Thomas Edison for that.
\n\u2014 30 \u2014<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When I answer the phone, I usually say, \u201chello?\u201d I think most people do. We really don\u2019t think about it, it\u2019s just instinctive\u2026 hello is just \u201cwhat you say\u201d when you answer the phone. Why is that? Well, it turns … Continue reading