"Hello from the other side. I must have called a thousand times." 📞
Today’s WordsmithWednesday word is ... ‘Hello’ (or ‘hallo’).
Incredibly, this short little word has an interesting history.
Popular legend has it that Thomas Edison put it into common usage when he encouraged people to answer the new 'telephone' with the word ‘hello’ rather than ‘ahoy’ - which is what his rival Alexander Graham Bell preferred.
However, this explanation misses a crucial backstory that makes everything fall more neatly into place...
It starts with a Hungarian inventor named Tivadar Puskás (as far as I am aware no relation to the legendary footballer Ferenc Puskás). ⚽
Tivadar Puskás came from nobility and lived an extraordinary life which included studying law, being an electrical engineer, world traveller, Colorado gold miner, friend of Edison and builder of the first telephone centre in Paris....
....where he first yelled the iconic word “hallom” down a telephone receiver (in Hungarian ‘hall’ means ‘hear’ and ‘hallom’ means ‘I hear it’).
Since then people all over the world have continued to use the expression – albeit slightly changed - but few people really know what it actually means.
Did you know? ☎️
