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I can't believe this word is only ~200 years old. It's been said so commonly for generations that it seems unimaginable that it's as new as modern technology li

I can't believe this word is only ~200 years old. It's been said so commonly for generations that it seems unimaginable that it's as new as modern technology like the telephone. I can imagine King Arthur without a telephone. I can't imagine King Arthur not saying hello. It really makes you think about statements like Cleopatra lived closer to us than to the building of the pyramids, or the Roman Empire lasting so long. Our perception of time is so strange.

constantcrying 3y ago
It seems to also be a word particular to telephone usage. To me it seems that while greetings obviously have existed far, far longer than a telephone, very rarely did you need a greeting which in a completely neutral way announces your existence.
humanistbot 3y ago
If King Arthur actually existed in the 5th-7th century (the tales are from the 9th-12th century) you wouldn't be able to understand him at all. You probably wouldn't even be able to understand the Old English of the 12th century tales either. Hola has a much longer history, to 5th-7th century, per https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hola https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hola Spanish: This is related to greetings in Germanic cognates such as Dutch hola, Old High German holā, emphatic imperative of Old High German holōn (“to fetch, used especially in hailing a ferryman”) Dutch: From Late Middle Dutch hola (“wait up!, hold on!, calm down!”), which also had the dialectal form holla; compare Middle Low German hola!, holda! (interjection), Middle High German holā! (interjection), of obscure origin. Possibly from the imperative of Middle Dutch halen, *holen (“to fetch”) (> dialectal holen), or possibly from Old French holà (“hey!”), from ho (“hold!, halt!, stop!”) + là (“there”).