Hello...and Hasta Luego!

When I first arrived to Spain I found it strange that when I would say “hello” to a friend or acquaintance on the street, the reply was always, “hasta luego.” I began to wonder: they must be trying to get away from me.

Acquaintance. Un conocido / a

After all of these years it’s still a bit strange to greet people on the street with “hasta luego” (pronounced “hasta LOGO” here in Madrid), when all I really want to say is “hello!”

Speaking of which, what did Thomas Edison invent that we English speakers use everyday?

The word “hello.”

There was the word “hullo” -used to express surprise as demonstrated by Charles Dickens in Oliver Twist. And “halloo” -used for calling dogs and ferrymen- but we can thank Edison for the use of “hello” as we use it today, for starting a conversation on the phone.

Ferrymen. Barqueros.

He thought the sound of “hello” simply travelled better over phone wires “because it can be heard ten to twenty feet away.”

That gave rise to the term “hello girls,” women operators who worked at the telephone exchanges in the early days. Before “hello” became the standard usage, telephone operators would begin conversations with “are you there?” or “who are you?”

It’s sort of like the way we start phone conversations here in Spain: “tell me.”

Published by: Drew Crosby