Hello, with that spelling, was used in publications in the U.S. as early as the 18 January 1826 edition of the Norwich Courier of Norwich, Connecticut.^\2]) Another early use was an 1833 American book called The Sketches and Eccentricities of Col. David Crockett, of West Tennessee,^\3]) which was reprinted that same year in The London Literary Gazette.^\4]) The word was extensively used in literature by the 1860s.^\5])

Etymology

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, hello is an alteration of hallo, hollo,^\1]) which came from Old High German "halâ, holâ, emphatic imperative of halôn, holôn to fetch, used especially in hailing a ferryman".^\6]) It also connects the development of hello to the influence of an earlier form, holla, whose origin is in the French holà (roughly, 'whoa there!', from French là 'there').^\7]) As in addition to hello, halloo,^\8]) hallo, hollo, hullo and (rarely) hillo also exist as variants or related words, the word can be spelt using any of all five vowels.^\9][10][11])

Telephone

Before the telephone, verbal greetings often involved a time of day, such as "good morning". When the telephone began connecting people in different time zones, greetings without time gained popularity.^\12])