Hello,
	I was in Hungary with my fiancee visiting her relatives, and I had
always heard her relatives say "halo" like hello with an 'a', just
like the germans say it. Anyways, I just assumed that it was the
hungarians copying the germans, as did my fiancee who speaks fluent
hungarian. Until the last day of our trip, somehow it came up about
the word halo. The Hungarians say "halo" before meeting you as a
greeting, and as a goodbye, it means something of "I acknowledge
you're there". Anyways, the curiosity of the hungarian usage peaked my
interest. Our host explained that "halo" was indeed a hungarian word
of origin, and that it developed from when Edison was first inventing
the telephone, his assistant whom was Hungarian, reccomended that the
word "halo" be used as a greeting when you answer the phone. So came
to be the word "hello" as edison pronounced it.

I'm not sure, but I did a little research, and noted that Edison's
assistant was probably "Nikola Tesla" the famous hungarian scientist
who invented AC current (versus Edison's DC current). My question is,
what is the history of the word "Hello" To me the curious use of the
word "halo" as a greeting and a goodbye seems to make a good case for
it's origin in hungary, as no other country uses it in that way that
I'm aware of. You can imagine my confusion as my fiancee's non-english
speaking aunt says "hello" when we're saying good byes! Thanks for
your help. Bill Gould

Hello.

Various online dictionaries contain no indication that "hello" is of
Hungarian/Magyar origin.

From the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language:
"Hello...
Alteration of hallo, alteration of obsolete holla, stop!, perhaps from
Old French hola : ho, ho! + la, there (from Latin illac, that way)."
Source: bartleby.com
http://www.bartleby.com/61/60/H0136000.html

From an archived "Cool Word" posting:
"As you might expect for such a common word, its origins are extremely
ancient.  In Chaucer's time, the word was hallow, and by the time of
Shakespeare it was halloo.  The root may have been a cry, holla
(Stop!),
which probably came from Old French hola (Ho there!), a compound of ho
(ho!) and la (there)."
Archived by mail-archive.com
http://www.mail-archive.com/word@tlk-lists.com/msg00094.html

From Wordorigins.com:
"It is a variant of hallo, which dates to 1840 and is a cry of
surprise. That in turn is related to halloo , a cry to urge on hunting
dogs. Halloo dates to about 1700, but a variant, aloo, appears in
Shakespeare's King Lear a century earlier than that.
And there is an even earlier variant, hollo, which dates to at least
1588 when Shakespeare used it in Titus Andronicus. There are also
cognates in other Germanic languages."
http://www.wordorigins.org/wordorh.htm


According to the web page "Communicating with Hungarians," the
situation that you encountered in Hungary apparently results from the
fact that the Hungarians words "Szia" and "Szervusz" are used
interchangeably for "hello" and "goodbye." As such, some Hungarian
speakers carry this practice over the to English and use  "hello" as a
farewell.

From the web page "Communicating with Hungarians":
"Did you know? 
Szia and Szervusz are used by friends when meeting or parting. Both
can mean either 'hello" or 'goodbye.' This will explain why Hungarians
who speak English sometimes say 'hello' when they are leaving, instead
of 'goodbye.'"
Hosted by University of Toronto:
http://cwr.utoronto.ca/cultural/english/hungary/commun.html

If it's any comfort, others have experienced the same thing:

"Hungarians have a strange verbal pattern when saying goodbye. Even
when speaking Hungarian, when all goodbyes have been said, they
suddenly say 'Hallo'. This can also be heard when they are finishing
phone conversations. I understand that this may be spelled 'Halo' in
Hungarian, but it is used likewise when they speak English, and
suddenly, just when you think the goodbyes have been said - 'Hallo'."
Source: The British Society for Plant Pathology
http://www.bspp.org.uk/bsppnews/bsppnews38/bsppnews38-10.htm

Interestingly, according to a 1992 Usenet message, there's a Hungarian
urban legend that suggests that the word "hello" was derived from a
form of the Hungarian word "hall-" (meaning "hear").  The claim is
that when Hungarians began to use telephones, they would pick up the
receiver and say "hallo" (essentially meaning "I'm hearing" as a
signal to the person on the other end of the call). As the author of
this message points out, though, this theory is not plausible since
the English "hello" long predates the invention of the telephone.
http://groups.google.com/groups?&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&client=googlet&selm=116uqiINNor3%40agate.berkeley.edu&rnum=1

search strategy: hello, halloo, hallo, hollo, etymology, hungarians,
"say hallo", "say hello"

I hope this helps. Hello. :-)

---

Clarification of Answer by juggler-ga on 29 Jan 2003 01:57 PST

Sorry for the typo at the end of the fifth paragraph. 
I meant to write:
"... carry this practice over to English..."

---

Clarification of Answer by juggler-ga on 29 Jan 2003 13:01 PST

Thank you for the tip.

Thank you juggler, 
   I looked up hello in dictionary.com, but didn't find anything about
hungary. Of course I'm always skeptical that word roots get do credit
if they come from languages not along english's primary roots (french,
german etc..). But the overriding fact that Hungarians Szia and
Szervusz is proof enough to me that they might have adopted a similar
usage for "hello".

The Urban legend part was really all I needed for proof of it's
improbability. The Usenet message about it being a hungarian tradition
was something along what I was looking for.  I forgot to mention that
as the story was told to me, Edison was looking for a word to answer
the phone, and Tesla reccomended they use the word Hallo to answer the
phone. Anyways, I think it is sufficient proof that this is a question
that has an answer that let's you believe whatever you want :-) I for
one now can put it up into the improbable urban legends. Thanks for
your help. Best, Bill Gould

I'm a native-speaking Hungarian (although my skills are somewhat rusty
because I don't get to use it often) but I can add some information
for you. The word you're asking about is "hallo" and I believe it's
derived from, or associated with, the root "hall" which means "hear."
"Listen" is "hallgat" and "I'm listening" is "hallgatok." I have a
hunch that the Hungarian "hallo" when answering the phone comes from
this expression. (I have no idea who Edison's assistant was and
whether they spoke Hungarian.) My guess is that "Hallo" as a greeting
or goodbye also is a derivation from the root "hall."

Juggler's research was interesting and I hope there are other
researchers or readers here who can add more about the etymology,
history and usage of the Hungarian "hallo."

czh

Czh's point is interesting, but it's more or less the same as what was
described as follows in the above-referenced Usenet message:
"There's a persistent rumour that we all say "hello" because, in the
old days of telephony, the Hungarians would pick up the receiver and
yell hallo' "hearing" into the mouthpiece.  This is hogwash of course
(it's a cute coincidence, but the English hallo as an exclamation to
get attention or to call for a halt predates the telephone, and
besides that particular form of the verb hall "hear" is not a likely
choice for the given function) but a surprising number of Hungarians
believe it fervently."
http://groups.google.com/groups?&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&client=googlet&selm=116uqiINNor3%40agate.berkeley.edu&rnum=1

juggler, you set me to exploring further and I'm now lost to the
addictive passions of etymology. It seems the origins of "hallo" --
just like "hello" -- is not easily tracked down.

://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=hallo&btnG=Google+Search

Searching for "hallo" shows its use in many European countries and the
discussions of its etymology get merged with discussions of the
etymology of "hello" -- which is also highly debated. I was amazed at
the number of discussions about it -- most of which quote the same
sources you found. My favorite one is Heaven and Hello.

http://www.endicott-studio.com/forhello.html

Thanks for launching me on this quest.

czh