hollo / hullo/ hello / hi / hey as simple greetings

[Beverly Flanigan]

I've got a new one (to me, at least):  A grad student told me "Hey, bub!"
is commonly used among his friends, and the office assistant, listening in,
said he uses it all the time.  (Both are 25-30, white.)  I asked if "bub"
came from "bubba," and neither one knew; they've just absorbed it as a new
address term for a friend, male or female.  Any comments?

At 09:18 PM 2/22/2005, you wrote:
>OED does a less than satisfactory job with "hello" and variants used as
>simple greetings rather than calls to people at a distance - or
>interjections of surprise.  Part of the reason is no doubt the ambiguity
>of  early exx.
>
>Many of you will be familiar with the widespread canard that "hello" was
>invented by Thomas Edison specifically for use on the newfangled telephone.
>
>Here is an early example of "hollo!" that looks like a simple
>greeting.  (Naturally, not all doubt can be removed.)
>
>1841 Leman Rede Sixteen-String Jack (London: G. H. Davidson, n.d.) 36
>[characters nearly face to face] "Hollo, old boy!  I'm glad to see you
>back again!"
>
>"Hi !" has followed an identical course. OED's 1862 may be misplaced,
>however. And what's the word "car" doing in 1885?  It doesn't seem to be a
>railway car.
>
>By the time we get to F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1920, the cite for "Hi !"
>shows unmistakably  the current usage.
>
>OED doesn't include the universal Southern U.S. "hey!" as an exact
>equivalent of "hi!"  Dating this accurately will also be difficult.  (I
>once thought only Gomer Pyle said it. Travel *is* broadening.)
>
>JL
>
>
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