Hello with this spelling is believed to have first appeared in the 1800s.
Much older than this word are other variants such as Hail, Holla, Hallo, and Hollo.
But these words were not strictly a greeting at that time—they were used more to demand attention.
Hallo, for example, came from the French Hola (from ho! “ahoy” and la “there”).
In the mid-1870s, the idea of the telephone became popular, and in 1878, the first public telephone directory (with 50 names) was published.
As the popularity and usage of the telephone increased, the question of how to answer the phone also gained importance.
Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, recommended Ahoy (Ahoy was a standard greeting among the sailors during those days).
Other options that were being considered were “Do I get you?” and “Are you there?”
But early telephone connections were not smooth, and so, users had to shout to one another.
So, it was a given that a small word, rather than a question, would be more appropriate.
Then in 1877, Thomas Edison—a rival to Graham Bell—suggested “Hello” in a note to the President of the Central District and Printing Telegraph Company (the company had significant influence in the matters concerning telephones).
Then came the first user manual of telephone, which had two choices for the greeting: A) “What is wanted?”; B) “Hello”.
It did not take long for hello to catch on, and when the famous Mark Twain used “Hello” in an 1880 comic strip called “A Telephonic Conversation,” it stuck with the public.
