ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Before hello became our everyday greeting, it was an all-out bellow meant for howling across vast distances. Medieval hunters yelled it into the woods, and travelers hollered it from the riverbank to summon a distant ferryman. It took Thomas Edison and the birth of the telephone in 1877 to bring the shout indoors, beating out Alexander Graham Bell's favored "Ahoy!" and transforming a cry for distance into our warmest welcome.
English
United States
TRANSCRIPT 🔗
A WORD, PLEASE — hello
continuity: Next, Professor Aubrey Vellum, with a word that used to be shouted across rivers.
the verdict: Your phone buzzes, your mum's name lights up the screen, and you still pick up and say, 'Hello?' as if it might be a stranger. We all do it. I do it too. And I've always wondered what that little word is doing there.
a word, please: Hello. A word, please.
the crack: Long before telephones, hello was a shout. Hunters in medieval England hollered to urge each other on i…
continuity: Next, Professor Aubrey Vellum, with a word that used to be shouted across rivers.
the verdict: Your phone buzzes, your mum's name lights up the screen, and you still pick up and say, 'Hello?' as if it might be a stranger. We all do it. I do it too. And I've always wondered what that little word is doing there.
a word, please: Hello. A word, please.
the crack: Long before telephones, hello was a shout. Hunters in medieval England hollered to urge each other on i…
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