The use of “hey” in place of “hello”.

AnWulf, the "hey'hay in hey/hay is for horses" is a double entendre referring, simultaneously and equally, to the grass and the previously-spoken greeting. As such, I would say that either spelling would be correct.

Well, actually, now that I think about it, "hey" makes a little more sense:

"Hay is for horses" means that "there exists this plant called hay, that is intended for horses to eat" and nothing more.

"Hey is for horses" means "the utterance you just made, "hey", is a barbarism that I'm criticising by comparing metaphorically to a plant that horses eat." The "hey" in "hey is for horses" refers the previously-spoken utterance.

Not that this proves anything, but in a Google vote, "hey" wins out, two to one.

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Here I've been a tad offended by a daughter-in-law addressing me with "Hey" instead of Hi Mom or something similar. Getting a card today from a 15 year old granddaughter addressed the same, I realized it must be a new form of greeting. But still seems a bit disrespectful to these 75 year old ears.

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Jon, oi in England? Thanks for the info. My Mother-in-law is English and I hear an occasional "oi" out of her. I would always think to myself, "How odd. Why is my Episcopal Mother-in-law speaking Yiddish?" Now, you've clarified it for me:)

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I've been hearing and saying "hey" for at least the past 30 years. And, by the way, I asked her and it turns out that my Mother-in-law IS speaking Yiddish when she says "oi", afterall!

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Hej is spelled Hej. (hello in swedish)

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"Hey" means "hello" in Swedish.

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Hey and Hi are clearly etymologically related. I mean, they're practically the same word (phonologically, at least). The difference between them is not semantic. Both are colloquialisms in English, but I would say that the former is more colloquial than the latter, hence its frequent as an attention-getter (but only when addressing someone of similar or lower social position).

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I live in Cincinnati, and "hey" is very common here. It is, however, considered "familiar" and informal; you would never say "hey" to your boss. It is often used in a flirtatious sense, at least around here.

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When I learned English letter writing, the only Salutation available was "Dear"Mr. So and So... not "Hey"Mr. So and So

For familiar use, especially in daily speech, anything goes and Hey can be tolerated, accepted and may even be endearing. But there has to be a difference in formal letter writing, there should be some politeness, refinement and grace. I can't imagine for example the teacher sending a note to the students starting with:

Hey students,
I would like to make an announcement....

If that's already happening, what has become of this country's culture? Does the word respect and refinement still exist? Have we given up on being classy at the expense of being hip, young or modern as an excuse?

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It's similar to "oi" in England, which is said more to get someone's attention than as a greeting.

Skinhead punk music is commonly called "oi," which always annoyed me in North America. Shouldn't it be "hey" music?

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This used to be a Southern thing - it has spread, which makes me kind of sad, as I miss being made fun of for it by my relatives in Kansas.

Here's a clue if a person is REALLY Southern - anyone these days will say "hey" in greeting, but if you are talking ABOUT greeting someone, and still use "hey," you are a true Southerner. For example:

"Let's stop in at Arlene's and say 'hey.'"

or

"Tell Aunt Jean I said 'hey.'"

or

"I just called to say 'hey.'"

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"Hey" wasn't used as a greeting when I was young (in Alaska and Washington). However, in the 60s the blacks made "Hey, Man" popular among the younger generation. I suspect the present use of "hey" for a greeting came from that usage.

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I would definitely not say that. It is unprofessional. For example; emails should only be ended in "Yours Truly" and Hey should be "Hello". I have been a manager for several years in the Insurance Business and this is what I dictate to my employees. If I see anyone write a letter with anything other then "Yours Truly" I will have them confronted about it.

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I am English, and I use 'hey' to say 'hi'.
'Oi' means something entirely different.. can be used to call someone's attention, but it is usually negative, as in, 'OI, what the hell do you think you're doing?' etc.
I wouldn't worry that you can't find it in the dictionary! It's slang, the language is growing and changing all the time.

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I use "Hey" often. It is familiar and has affectionate overtones. I learned English growing up in northern Idaho. I lived in eastern Washington for the last 10 years and I'm now 25 years old.

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As quoted from http://www.thefreedictionary.com:

***Traditionally, hey was just an exclamation. Sometimes it expressed delight, sometimes a warning. Nowadays we find it used for emphasis as well, especially in the expression but hey. It is also a greeting. It is a short, colloquial version of How are you? and thus close kin to the informal salutation hi, which it seems to be replacing in many situations. Until recently, this greeting had a distinctly Southern flavor. The national survey conducted in the 1960s by the Dictionary of American Regional English found hey as a greeting restricted chiefly to Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas. The friendly hey has since spread throughout the United States.***

So, 1) Yet another salutation formed from what was originally a warning.
2) Yet another Southernism shared by all. Hey, I like that! :)

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I used the "Peace be upon you" when greeting others.:)

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as Zac said...in Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and a few other languages, "hej" means "hello," although the "j" is pronounced as a "y" of course.

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I really like "hey" and "hi" and all those American terms discussed here. In South Africa we used to call "Howzitt?" in a cheery tone of voice, asking "How is it?", making it quite clear that we didn't want any serious reply, beyond perhaps "Ja" pronounced "Ya" and certainly were not concerned in the least about how the other party fared. I really like that too. But in the depths of rural England I hear an irritating variant: "All right???" meaning "Are you all right?" asked in a serious, worried and concerned tone, sounding as if the questioner suspects that the addressee has gone completely mad. Women entering pubs see friends already ensconced there, stop in their tracks and query : "You all right?" slowly and loudly, the note rising from conversational level to a high interrogative shriek, sounding like serious concern for the well-being of their victims. Actually they don't give a damn.

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Willie Mays was known as the "Say Hey Kid" from early in his career with the NY Giants which started in 1951 and all baseball loving Canadians like me were aware of that, but I don't think we started to use "hey" as another way of saying "hi" until at least the 60s and perhaps later.

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@IngisKahn ... All these years and no one has bothered to tell that "Hay is for horses." ... Not hey.

Hey has been around a long time ... hey
c.1200, variously, in Middle English, hei, hai, ai, he, heh, expressing challenge, rebuttal, anger, derision, sorrow, or concern; also a shout of encouragement to hunting dogs.

Þa onswerede þe an swiðe prudeliche, `Hei! hwuch wis read of se icudd keiser!' ["St. Katherine of Alexandria," c.1200]

But hey, what the heck! As a Southerner, I say we kept it alive so that the folks in the rest of the country could use it.

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Interestingly Hello was originally hullo, which was an exclamation of surprise.
"Hullo! what have we here"
That being the case, I'm all for using hey as a greeting.

Linguistic evolution rolls on.

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I've noticed that a number of books I've read from 1940's and before, from the UK, use "hallo" rather than "hullo" or "hello".

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This reminds me of the parental admonishment "Hey is for horses!" Which is usually used when a child says "hey" to get their parent's attention.

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I've seen some here say it was from Old English 'hello' or one of the Scandinavian languages 'hel or Germanic 'heil' but the word is originated from the Roman 'eho' meaning to call to attention.

The origin is NOT from the word 'hello' but from 'hey!' a call to attract attention, c.1225, possibly a natural expression to obtain attention. It's recent usage as a form of greeting is just a coincidence to 'hello, heil and hel'.

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In the UK Oi" or Hey" would usually be said in a sharp manner to bring a persons attention to something you were maybe concerned about i.e." Oi what do you think you are doing"
Hey or Hay used as a greeting would not be used in general as it would be seen as an Americanism.
"All right John" or "Hi John" etc. would only be used in a very casual friendly way." All right" is not intended or taken as an enquiry into a persons well being, just like "Howzitt" which sounds absolutely ridiculous to me.
But this is why we define American English and UK English, and as long as we can understand each other (all be it with some misunderstandings at times) what does it matter.
I would suggest from the pathetic attempt by BRUS to ridicule "All right" he should get it into his head that "Howzitt" is the variant. it's NOT English.

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@Wellid - I think you're probably new here, at least as a commenter. AnWulf and Brus have, admittedly, pretty idiosyncratic (and opposite) ideas about English, and I tend to disagree with just about everything Brus says about English, but they're both quite harmless and generally pretty civil. They really are part of the furniture round here, and Pain in the English wouldn't be what it is without them.

And if you think they monopolise the threads or produce a lot of side arguments, there's someone you obviously haven't met yet (and I'm not talking about me!).

The length of these threads seems to be more or less unlimited, so they're not taking argument space from anyone else.If you don't like their contributions, just skip them, as I do when AnWulf goes into his strange dialect (ideolect would perhaps be a more suitable word here, as I think he's the only person in the world who speaks it). Or when Brus starts teaching us English grammar :). But they both add a bit of colour to the discussions. And AnWulf can be quite knowledgeable sometimes :).

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I am going to change my name to hey for my first name ,hey also for my middle name , last name Fat Albert.People could then call out, Hey,Hey Hey Fat Albert.

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I just thought of something it could be rap to blame for spreading Hey around because rap is so popular with people under 50. Just saying hey.

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My mom is Swedish, so I grew up saying "Hey hey", which, reading this, I realize should be "Hej, hej", but no one in Missouri, where I grew up ever has said anything anything about it, several of my friends picked up the habit from me.

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I'm a native Texan, aged 30, and it saying 'Hey' rather than 'Hi' or 'Hello' is very common.
For example, saying 'Hello' to a co-worker in the hall comes off as sounding too formal, too snobby.
'Hey, What's Up?' or 'Hey, How's it going?' could be used to greet a colleague to either start a conversation or simply in passing.

In this area, 'Hey' is an accepted greeting-but definitely a colloquialism.

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sdsds

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As a child, born and bred in the heart of London, I would say, 'ay ? when what I meant was, "What did you say ?" I wasn't alone in this and the common response from a parent would be, " 'ay is for 'orses." 'h' was mostly redundant in London back in the thirties but there were plenty of 'orses around.

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The first time I ever heard "Hey!" used as a greeting, was Gomer Pyle using it on The Andy Griffith Show. I always thought might be where it started.

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Most London Cockeggs slur out 'alright' as a greet over Hi, Hello etc.

'Oi' means what Helen said back in 2006.

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I was using Hey in French as a greeting, and my friend got offended

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As mentioned by other posters, "Hey" comes from the Swedish "HEJ" which means hello or hi. Swedes settled in what is now Delaware in the 1600's and later in the midwest and their hej was taken by others as an exclamation.

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I'd venture to say this is popular in the Southest US. While living there, I remember overhearing a girl say to a friend, "Hey! Don't walk by without saying 'Hey'"

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Mark Twain, in a letter to Bob and Louise Howland, used the phrase "It's a great country--Hey, Bob?" in an 1870 letter the context seeming to mean "Isn't that so, Bob?"

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It's pretty common throughout the U.S., I think. Originally southern, but no longer, as JP said.

And, also as he said, and contrary to what Jon said, "hey" as a greeting (as opposed to a request for attention) is *very* common. In fact, I'd say the "Hey!" meaning "Hi there!" is *more* common, nowadays, than the "Hey!" meaning "I'm here; pay attention to me!"

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As a Southerner from NC, I find most of these comments ignorant. Hey is used in place of hello or to get someone's attention when you see them in person. I say hello when I answer my phone. And it isn't Swedish, at least not here. North Carolina was settled by Scots, Irish and Germans. The Swedes didn't have anything to do with how we speak.
So hey and yall is a part of my heritage and I am proud of it. Don't care where it came from,don't care if you don't like it.
I wish yall had picked up "yoos guys" instead and left hey, shrimp and grits and red velvet cake to the people of the South.

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How about howdy?

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I'd guess that the English "oi" is more probably linked to the Dutch "Hoi" which is used as "hi" or "hello". Hej, hi, hoi, hey etc all most likely share the same root I'd have thought.

I'd also guess that the Dutch hoi is the root of the nautical "Ahoy", give that coutry's strong nautical heritage and contribution to nautical terms, which would also acount for the more common British English usage of "oi" being an exclamation to attract attention as in "Oi! What are you doing here?".

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I think hey is a horrible greeting, since in English English there's an implied exclamation mark, as with oi! As in "Hey you! Stop that!" So it's another importation from the States, as hi was originally, although hi is very widely used in Great Britain now.

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@ Nick - I (also a Brit) totally agree, both on pronunciation and meaning. I just checked it in The Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary and was rather surprised not to find it under hoy, thinking oi was more a dialect thing. And their definition is 'used to attract somebody's attention, especially in an angry way' - Like - 'Oi, you! What do you think you're doing?'.Not exactly a greeting. But on the other hand on the street or in the pub In you might well hear something like 'Oi mate, got a fag?' I suppose we could say that's a greeting of sorts. (for non-Brits, fag=cigarette)

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@Jackie - English English? Are you excluding the rest of us who share these isles. But I do agree with you about the exclamation mark.
@Frightful - Nice one. Out of interest, did you also add aitches to e's as in 'this 'ere hedge of the table'. I take it you know the Heineken ad - "The wa'er in Majorca don't taste like what it ought'a". I've just noticed there's an 'oi' in it with a noticeable aitch. 'Oi, Dell! Any danger of some refreshment in 'ere' - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4VFqbroi1I

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I like "hey" when used as a friendly greeting - the tone of voice makes clear when you mean "hey!" in a "stop thief!" sense.
But "Brit" ? Now that is indeed horrible.

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@Brus - that was a bit personal, wasn't it?

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W Will - not in the slightest personal, no, not at all. British is fine, one of my own passports is indeed a British one. Sometimes I even live in Britain. Nothing against British people at all, sorry if that was the impression given.
My great distaste is for the 'word' Brit, which, like Yank or Frog when intended to denote someone's nationality, is, well, horrible, no matter how affectionately intended. Did American newspapers carry headlines about the Olympics like: " Yanks win lots and lots of medals "? or French ones :" Frogs don't win many medals, do we? " ? So why did British ones do "Brits do really rather well in medals table!" (I paraphrase all these, of course, because I have forgotten what they actually said). To me, 'Brit' ranks on the yuk! scale along with 'expat' which seems to be used to mean British people who are living as foreigners in another country. Nothing wrong with doing that, of course: I'll do it myself if it doesn't stop raining here soon. It's the word itself which grates on the ear like fingernails scraped on the blackboard (or is it chalkboard?). What's wrong with "foreigners" as the mot juste? In Thailand they use the charming term "farangs" which is the same thing, and it is my first choice of word here.
Again, sorry about the wrong impression given, of course nothing personal was intended.

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Well, I'm a foreigner in France at the moment, but I'm not an expatriate because I'm still officially resident in Britain. The French are unlikely to have a headline beginning "Frogs..." but they might well have one beginning "Les Rosbifs...". One might well see a headline "Scots do well..." or "Welsh..." or "Northern Irish..." but "British do well..." sounds a bid odd and old-fashioned. "Great Britain does well..." is a bit of a mouthful and so would probably get reduced to "GB does well..." but some people don't like the term "GB" any more than others like "Brits" - so who to please?!

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Odd? Old fashioned? Yes - what's wrong with that?
Scots ... Welsh ... Northern Irish ... er, isn't one missing? Ah yes, the Engs! Scots tenth in medal table, were we an independent nation, Irish really good too, and the Welsh, and the Engs! You ask Who are the Engs? and I say they are the not odd and not old-fashioned word for the English.
It may seem odd and old-fashioned to say the British did well, but get used to it, Jackie; 3rd in the world behind two nations with mega-huge populations feels good!

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Sorry, Jackie, but to get back to the point of this area of discussion, I should have said "but hey! get used to it, Jackie; 3rd in the world behind two nations with mega-huge populations feels good!" (We are not meant to be talking about Brits and expats, really, it is all meant to be about hey!.)

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@Brus - I didn't think you were criticising me for being British; we may have our disagreements, but I know you're not that bad. Of course all of us indulge in attacking each other's arguments, but I think it's a bit of a slippery slope if we start directly attacking the language that other people use in their comments. Call me old fashioned, but I find that rather bad manners. A few people on the opposite side to me in these debates use what I consider pretty pompous and over-formal language, but I'd never dream of calling it 'horrible'. I did say somewhere else about an expression you used, that I wouldn't personally use it, but I admitted it was quite correct and I certainly didn't use this sort of emotive language. Sorry if I'm over-reacting.

As for Brits, it's just a bit of shorthand. I don't see the connection with Yanks and Frogs as these are not normally used by the inhabitants of those countries. I regularly read and occasionally comment on 'Separated by a 'common language', an excellent website run by an American linguist working in Britain on the differences between American and British English, where the word Brits is regularly used as a form of shorthand. Just because Americans don't like being called Yanks and French don't like being called Frogs, doesn't mean we Brits have to reject such a useful word.

And as for expat, it doesn't simply mean foreigner or foreign (it's also an adjective). I live and work in Warsaw. Saying I'm an expat is rather shorter than saying I'm a foreigner living and working here. What's more, there are certain pubs that are popular with British and Americans living and working here, and so they are known as expat pubs. As well as being longer, calling them pubs that foreigners go to wouldn't have the same meaning; they could just be for tourists. Expat has a very precise meaning, presumably just as farang has.

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W. Will,
I apologise if I have offended you by quoting your use of forms of English which I have then said are not to my liking, and I take aboard the gentle way in which you have phrased your rebuke.
Okay, I wince every time I hear "Brit" or "expat" and feel that just because they are increasingly widely used (which is exactly what I am moaning about) does not mean I should just roll over and say "whatever" or "fair enough, live with it then". British and Briton are handy enough words without needing to drop another syllable, and there have been American bars and English pubs and Irish bars and pubs across the world for a very long time, and I have extensive experience of very many of them across three continents. I very much hope they will continue to stay in business long enough to be there for my next visit. In Bangkok, for example, I recommend Molly Malone's in soi Convent, close by Silom, as a fine Irish bar, well liked by the better sort of farang.
But I did not intend to offend you, as I have said before, only to rail against the dreadful debasement of the English language as so eloquently described elsewhere by Jackie from France. She sums up much of what I have grumbled about in the past, and I agree with everything I have just read from her.

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@Brus = 'nuff said (if you'll excuse the colloquialism). But to get back to expat. English pubs and Irish pubs (which rarely have much to do with Ireland) in other countries are not the same as expat bars. Expat bars are where people living and working in a foreign country go. In Warsaw they are just as likely to be Polish pubs as any other. And it is hard to find a more efficient way of talking about the expat community. Or for example saying that you like to avoid the expat scene. One word and everyone understands what you mean. And foreigner really won't do, because the word expat is used when I'm talking with other native speakers, to whom I'm definitely not a foreigner. (Couldn't get out of using the dreaded 'whom' there!)

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The term "oi" is more of a "hoy" but the h is dropped. I'm an English male. Hoy!, for example, is more about admonishment or negatively putting someone down who may be either cheeky or trying to get away with something. Form example, if I was cheeky to dad, he'd say oy, with a dropped h for being cheeky. The Yiddish version is more of an elongated oyyyyyy, and more about dispair or exasperation than a greeting. At least this is my take on the topic

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@Brus - just noticed something you said. British people virtually never refer to themselves as Britons. This is mainly used by newspapers and to
talk of the ancient Britons.

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@Brus ... While many in the US would find nothing wrong with the word "yank", it is for that they are indeed "yanks" ... a northerner. The bloodiest war in US history was the War between the States ... aka the Civil War ... and aka by those in the South as the "War of Northern Aggression" or "Lincoln's War". In that war, the northerners were known as "yanks" or "yankees". Still, to this day, it's an insult in the South to call someone a "yank" or "yankee". The word is often said with "damn" ... as in "damn yanks" or "damn yankees".

It's brings a smile to a Sutherner's face when little suthernisms such as "hey" break out and spread to the rest of the country. Sooner or later, they'll get to saying "y'all" as well! lol

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Just found this thread on 'hey' and not wishing to throw a spanner in the works, but I know of two old North West England farmsteads, Ridding Hey and Sir Richard Hey. I think in old England a hey was an area of land, it dates back to pre 1760.

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AnWulf: I thank you for your most lucid exposition of the usage and meaning of the word "Yank". I may sometimes adjust my usual greeting on entering a pub, to "harrorehh, y'all, howzitt?!" (Scot, US and SA) but only if I know the folk already there, and only if I am intoxicated on arrival. But I would never call them Yanks, for 1) fear of causing offence and 2) because I never have gone and never do go to the US, so they wouldn't be.

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Another thread hijacked by AnWulf and Brus. Hey guys, how about we don't clutter these threads with so many side arguments and petty personal attacks?

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