hello
n. countablen. the word you say or the action you take when you meet or greet someone.
n. an utterance or gesture of greeting. Often used as the object of verbs like 'say' or 'give'.
She gave me a friendly hello as I walked in.
The children shouted a loud hello to their teacher when she entered the classroom.
A simple hello can often bridge the social gap between strangers, serving as a low-stakes invitation to further conversation in almost any setting.
Hello (first attested in 1826), from holla, hollo (attested 1588). This variant of hallo is often credited to Thomas Edison as a coinage for telephone use, but its appearance in print predates the invention of the telephone by several decades. Ultimately from a variant of Old English ēalā, such as hēlā, which was used colloquially at the time similarly to how hey and (in some dialects) hi are used nowadays. Thus, equivalent to a compound of hey and lo. Used when drawing attention to yourself. Possibly influenced by Old Saxon halo!, imperative of halōn (“to call, fetch”), used in hailing a ferryman, akin to Old High German hala, hola!, imperative forms of halōn, holōn (“to fetch”). More at hallo. OED and Merriam-Webster also suggested that it is a variant of holla, a variant of holloo. Further beyond, the origin remains uncertain. OED and Merriam-Webster suggested that it has a connection between hallow (“to shout, to cry out loud”), which came from Old French holloer, which, according to Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, is from Old Saxon halōn.
Commonly functions as the direct object of 'say' or 'give'.