Hoy hoy!
Posted at 5:15pm on Saturday, April 30th, 2005 by AndySometimes really fascinating things turn up in your mail. Thanks to Doug for sending me this one… The etymology of “hello”
Dr. Bell himself wanted telephone calls to start with “Hoy, hoy!” Depending on whom you believe, Bell’s preferred salutation was derived either from a Gaelic greeting (Bell was born in Scotland) or from the nautical term “Ahoy.” (Fans of the TV show “The Simpsons” may have noticed that the character Mr. Burns, an old man whose vocabulary includes many obsolete words, always answers the telephone by saying “Ahoy-hoy.”)
