Interjections rarely have proper
etymologies. They are not real words, and they develop irregularly. The noise
conventionally spelt <hullo>, <hello> or <hallo> was once
rendered as <hollo>, <hollow> or <holla> (lexicalised as the
verb <holler>). It probably goes back to a combination of ME <ho>
'stop!' and <la/lo>, presumably imitating French <ho-la> 'stop!,
wait!' (+ 'there'). The <ho> part is what you might call a "natural
interjection", like <hey>, <ha>, <hm> etc. They occur in
language after language (cf. Lat. ha, hau, heu, ehem, etc.) and don't go back to
anything "proto" -- people just keep reinventing them.
Interjections are easily borrowable.
We adopted the "telephone" <halo> into Polish (it came in the
same package with the telephone), and we've been using <hola> 'stop, hold
on!' for a few centuries (it's actually dated nowadays). When I was in
primary school, my generation borrowed US English ouch! from
Huckleberry Hound & Co. Now kids and people in their twenties all say
<wow>, which I can't bring myself to utter.
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2002 7:11 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] Re: hello
Can anyone tell me the origin of the word
"hello"?