Apparently “ahoy” was a common greeting before the telephone was invented, to the point that Alexander Graham Bell suggested it for use when answering the phone.
Ahoy was common enough that the Simpsons had their oldest phone user answer with "Ahoy hoy?"
I'm not really convinced that "ahoy" was that common beforehand. AFAIK, Graham Bell wanted a different greeting than what was commonly used as to differentiate greeting on the phone with greeting IRL.
Confirmation this is the worst timeline.
Ahoy is the superior greeting. I support its return to standard use.
While it wasn't a general greeting, "halloo" was already used as a verb meaning "to call for a hunting" in the 14th century.
also as an exclamation of surprise, like "halloo, what's this?"
"hello" is still occasionally used in this sense today.
idk if you're joking but not German; it was indeed halloo or holloo in English before hello became standard
“halloo, what’s this?”
"haaaallooooo" is used a lot by Germans as a slow exclamation to mean "hey idiot, what are you doing?"
It's used this way in American English sometimes, as in a teen issuing a counterpoint "HellOOOOoooo"
There are countries in the world, where you enter a room in the morning full of dear and beloved friends and colleagues, and you would neither greet them nor make eye contact until they wanted something from you.
I don't know whether this would be my heaven or my hell, but as a brit, useless smalltalk is practically baked into my bones.
Especially today where everyone wants to be alone because of overstimulation (but they might also feel lonely at the same time)
iirc the "Hello my baby, Hello my ragtime gal" song was written specifically about the telephone. "Hello" wasn't a common irl greeting at the time
Howard and Emerson in 1899: sup bring that booty girl btb"
Except, nowhere in the meme is stated that. The meme is about "the first attested writing" of the word hello.
"Hallo" as a general greeting was popularized by the telephone though, so the picture does have a historical significance in this context.
So... ? It's just an old photo of a man talking to the phone for context.
source image : Scanned from a (cheaply printed) postcard, c. 1905-1915; no notice of publisher, date, or any copyright.