As I child, I noted that in "The Chronicles of Narnia," "hullo" is almost always used as an interjection indicating surprise, not as a greeting. "Hullo, what's this?"

It’s so refreshing to see you both. No shouting, respect, smiles, well researched stories and not uninformed opinions, loved it!

The reference of “ciao” deriving from “sciavo” meaning “ slave” is like in some parts of Germany you may hear, “ Hallo, Servus” with that same mentality of I am your humble servant.

That origin of "goodbye" from the contracted phrase "God be with you" ("godbwye") blew my mind. For some reason I had never looked it up.

Greetings! I'm Czech and we use „Ahoj“ (Ahoy) ALL the time. It's a paradox considering that we're landlocked. Also we use „Čau, Čaues , Čauky, Čus“ etc (Ciao) Both at the beginning and the end of a conversation. We also use „Haló“ for a distant call or a reassurance of someone's presence on a phone... Also the „salam“ greeting is quite funny to me as it means bacon in Czech.

Now it makes sense why Hobbits say "Hullo" in LOTR! Can't wait for more episodes!

My favourite greeting comes from Ojibwe: aanii (pronouned Ah Nee or Ah NEE) and means "I see your light" Wonderful video! Thanks so much for making this!

Australians almost universally greet each other with “g’day”

My favourite hello-type greeting is in Arabic Syrian (Levantine) dialect - SHLONAK? - which is a contraction of “shou lawnak”: what is your colour? I.e., what's your mood? My next favourite is the way hello is said in Lebanon, where most people speak a mix of Arabic, English and French (very colonial): Hi, Kifak, ca va!

Came for Rob, stayed for Jess.

What a nerd fest. I love it!

I am your obedient servant, Rob and Jess. Thanks for the presentation.

I like this podcast idea. Please keep it here on KZfaq

I love etymology, and the two of you make it even more enjoyable. Looking forward to more episodes!

Goodbye in Japanese - Sayonara (Formal); Bai Bai ( bye-bye), Jaa Ne (see you later), or Mata Ne ( see you later) (Friends or Family); Ittekimasu (I'm leaving now) (used when leaving home or office); Ojama Shimashita (I have disturbed you) (used when leaving someone's home).

If ciao means slave, it has the same meaning as the bavarian / austrian servus you can use instead of both hello and ciao. Servus is also understood in all other countries that once belonged to the austro-hungarian empire. Another greeting which is used in a frequently rather extended time frame around noon, I'd reckon practically in the whole of Germany, is Mahlzeit, which literally means meal time. Since it is used around lunchtime both when you meet someone and when you part, it may come from wishing "a good meal" either to come or to have had. In the company I worked in it was sometimes used the whole day over, even during night shift, and under all circumstances, even in workshops, where nobody was having a meal nor expecting to have one soon.

When Rob clarifies that 'my dear' (from 'me duck') does not imply any particular intimacy, it reminded me of the Cornish 'my lover' / 'me lover' which again is affectionate but not romantic in anyway. To outsiders like myself being addressed as 'lover' is memorable and, well, lovely.

31 minutes of such an interesting knowledge. In my language, swedish, the most common greeting word is "hej". In high school I was told that this word dated back to the viking era and was brought back in the begining of 1800, right after Sweden lost Finland to Russia.

For a pair of word nerds, you both have wonderfully expressive faces. Ironically, this is a good lesson in non-verbal communication.

I love the Terry Pratchett/Neil Gaimen book Good Omens: Crowley: Ciao! Ligur: What's that mean? Hastur: "Ciao", it's Italian, it means "food".

In the UK Black Country (and also in parts of Gloucestershire) 'How bist' or 'Ow Bist thee' is still used . Very good link back to OE and Frisian/Low German. The answer is traditionally ''Bay too bah" -

Pronto meaning doing something quickly in English more likely comes from the Spanish "pronto" meaning "soon". Great discussion. Love it.

In South Africa a very common greeting is "howzit".

"Hallo, how's ya poo?" is now canon. 😁

My new favorite podcast? I think so!

Always loved when I learned in German that the standard sign-off on the phone is "Auf Wiederhören", till I hear from you again (as opposed to auf Wiedersehen, till I see you again) . Since i learned this in school, and 30 years ago, i don't know if it's actuallly a common phrase today, but i like it

In Doric (spoken in the North East of Scotland) we commonly say 'Fit like?' as a greeting, meaning 'what like', or 'how's things'. A reply could be 'Nae bad. Foo's yersel?' meaning 'not bad. And how are you?'. An alternative is 'Aye, aye' which translates as 'Yes, yes' but just means hello. Really enjoyed the first episode of the new channel.

Great vid. Regarding God be with you: in Irish the greeting is Dia dhuit which also means God be with you. The reply is often Dia agus Muire dhuit 'God and Mary be with you. A funny story I was once cycling on Inis Mór one of the Irish speaking islands off the coast of Galway and Clare and passed a group of Japanese tourists. I wished them Konnichi Wa as I whizzed by. Without missing a beat they greeted me back with 'Dia dhuit'.

We Hungarians know that the word hello (Hungarian: halló) comes from Hungarian "hallod?" , meaning "do you hear?". (Hungarian "hall" means to hear) Because at the building of first telephone centers were many Hungarians involved. like Tivadar Puskás. So they were asking over the line "hallod?", do you hear? can you hear?

Ey-up, Me Duck! Loving the new channel (Words Unravelled). Words and their origins are fascinating 🤓

In Filipino, a common greeting we use equivalent to hello- most usually seen in the tourism industry- is "mabuhay", which literally means "to live". So when those people at the airport greet you like that, it's like an invitation to live in our country, amongst our people. Which sounds quite lovely imo. And one way to say "goodbye" is "paalam"- more literally, it means to ask permission or to let someone know something. In this case, you're letting them know you're going on and asking permission to leave. Which is rather polite lmao. It's a bit of a shame we don't really use these day to day tbh. Most Filipinos have some command of English so we tend to greet each other in English, like "Hi!" or "Good morning po!" ("po" being a generic term we add for respectful speech).

„Hie thee hither“ (Macberh I, 5). I should definitely use this more often!

One of my all time favorite lines from literature (Dumas) is when D’artagnan is dying, he says “Athos - Porthos, au revoir! Aramis, adieu!"

Love it, such a fun idea. I've read Lexicographers' books, where they make fun of us civilians who are enamored by etymologies. They smugly call us smug. Silly. Humans are curious, we want to know the past use of words. Words are ideas. Ideas evolve. So glad you two are starting this series, ty :)

I am glad this was recommended. Looking forward to more.

Really enjoyed your relaxed and informative style. Looking forward to more videos!

In Mandinka, at least at the time I learned to speak it, greetings were generally long and formal, starting with “Kor’ tanante?” Which meant “Hope you have no problems!” Followed by detailed enquiries about the person’s family and where they are, etc. Some younger people would ask “I be nyaadi?” meaning “How you doing?” And there were different sequences of questions in different parts of the region (Senegal and Gambia, Mali…) But each question had a prescribed answer, and learning the right answers was a trip at first. The right answer to “Where’s your family?” was “They are here”, and the right answer to “Any problems?” Was “No problems”. I caused much hilarity when I answered the “Any problems?” question with “They’re here!” Things may have changed, because Mandinka wasn’t a written language at the time.

So next episode…. “No, yeah”. And “yeah, no” .

I live in Japan, so here are some common ways to say goodbye: matta ne (most common, something like "see you later") matta ashita (usually said like "ma ta shta" - "see you tomorrow") Both of the above are sometimes preceded by "ja", or "jaa", similar to saying "Well, ..." bai bai (said just like "bye bye" and mostly used by kids and young people) Good job with this! Was refreshing to just see two intellectually curious people sharing knowledge and being cheerful and likeable. Pleasant change to a lot of media these days!

Yay Edit: when you explained the curious origin of "Ciao" it immediately reminded me of the (southern) german greeting "Servus". Seems like they have the same origin/meaning. Very nice podcast format, keep it up! :)

I love learning about etymology and the quirks of language, so this podcast is right up my street (and Harry potter is an amazing bonus!)

Hello! I am so excited ‘Useless Etymology’ has a podcast! I write poetry and often begin by researching the origin of words, ie. coda, a poet’s ‘summation’ at the end of a poem means tail, what fun!!!

This was excellent. Hit subscribe right away. Well done, Rob and Jess!

There is a great Seinfeld episode where Kramer was promised a hello by the bank or he wins $100. Long story short it is a clever compilation of all the ways you can acceptable greet someone in English.

Brilliant! Been following Jess on tiktok for a while and it's great to see worlds collide!

This was lovely! Long time fan of RobWords ❤ Keep it up 😊

You guys have a lot of fun together; its fun to watch.

Liking this format. Most enjoyable and informative, Rob. Well done both. Keep it here on KZfaq. Ciao 😁

Salutations Rob and Jess. This is wonderful. I so look forward to more of these podcasts. I'm Irish and good morrow was used by my father's generation quite frequently. It was usually reduced to a simple 'morrow as in 'morrow boys. Before the Ulster Plantation there was an attempt to plant Munster with the English. This failed as a lot of the newly 'planted' English were quickly absorbed into the Irish language and culture. As a result we in Munster have retained a lot of archaic English in our speech such as Forenenst meaning in front of me or opposite me.

I refer you to the Bristol Stool Scale used by Gastroenterologists to gauge you health on the appearance of your stool.

Utterly fascinating. Brilliant.

19:40 Interesting. In Portuguese the word "thank you" changes depending on the gender of the speaker: obrigadO for men and obrigadA for women.

Salute makes a a lot of sense as an expression of greeting. In military custom, the origin of the hand salute dates back to medieval times when armored knights would raise their visors upon approaching each other to identify themselves and signal intent. This was a common form of greeting between knights.

Hi Rob, as a Frenchman I totally confirm what you said about "ça va" . it's even funnier nowadays as modern medicine seems to realize eventually that our "belly is our second brain". Somehow, poop-snooper doctors where centuries ahead of their time 😄

I studied Spanish in high school, and our teacher taught us both “¡Hola!” and “¿Que tál?” My parents also taught me a bit of Slovenian, like “živio” and “se vidimo” among other basic words and phrases.

Enjoyed this! I always thought Ciao was more exquisite and haven't heard it that often down south! "Take it easy"!

A lovely deep dive Rob. I found the typical Romanian salutaion very easy to grasp. "Solute"

A little fun fact to add to »ciao«: In Bavarian the most common greeting is »Servus«, deriving from the identical Latin word meaning »slave«. Just like with »ciao« the speaker means to express »I am at your service« but it's become a relatively casual greeting or goodbye.

Thank you Rob. In days gone by it would have been "How art thou" and my mother would sometimes greet me thus. She has been gone now some 25 years but her mother from a long established farming family (some 800 plus years in a small knot of Dorset villages) would perhaps have spoken thus on a daily basis.

Hey, have to add a snippet from recent history. In the U.S. anyway, "hey" as greeting overturned "hello" as the commonest form in the 1970s, at least among the young. It was an embrace of the wildly popular TV comedy "Happy Days" and its unconventional major character "the Fonz" (Henry Winkler). His unvarying entrance was "heeey", said with extended inflection and downward pitch so as to exhibit and project complete confidence and utmost coolness. The under-text was "look at me, I'm here, isn't that cool?" It wasn't overbearing, but it made clear who was top dog, and it was impossible to challenge because that would make you too uncool, and no one wanted that. In the larger context, that was the reaction invoked in the younger set, children and teens (Fonz was early twenties). To adults, particularly parents, it was a challenge to their authority because of his denial of convention. But he was always smooth and ingratiating, polite to his own elders, always in the coolest way. Hence, the teacher's objection to kids using "hey" as a greeting, and their insisting upon "hello". And that was the biggest pushback I ever saw at the time myself. Everything else was bound to collapse into mean-spiritedness. It was all attitude. You couldn't say hi; it had to be cool.

The German term "Fernsprecher" is common among people that celebrated their 100th birthday recently. Honestly, almost everyone says "Telefon" today. ... Thinking a bit further about that, the younger ones would rather say "Handy" or "Smartphone", they just don't have that stationary device anymore.

Oh yes, more of this please. Two knowledgeable people enjoying being told things they didn't know about an interesting subject.

Wotcha (or wotcher?) was pretty common when I was young, and I think it was common in cockney. It also features in that campfire song, “gin gan goolie”.

Brilliant video! Thoroughly enjoyed it - especially "hey up, me duck" 😎

The Czechs also say: "Ahoj" (ahoy) for hello. Ahoy is also a naval greeting/challenge. When a boat is approaching a naval ship, the quartermaster shouts to it: "Boat ahoy!" If there is an officer aboard the boat, then the response is: "Aye-aye!" If the captain of another naval ship is in the boat, the boat coxswain would reply: with the name of the ship from whence the captain is coming. This is an ancient vocal form of "IFF" (Identification Friend or Foe), as well as a lead time for the ship to prepare to properly receive the officer or Captain in the boat.

In Swedish, there is a slightly slangy greeting, “tjänare” (sometimes shortened to ”tjena” or even “tja”) 🎉which is an abbreviation of “jag är Er ödmjuka tjänare” = I am your humble servant.

We still use "ey up" in Yorkshire as a warning as well as a greeting. It's also used, I guess in the warning sense, to ask people to move out of the way, often followed by, "Coming though!".

I've always enjoyed RobWords since discovering it on KZfaq. Now I have double the pleasure. Thanks to you both.

I'm surprised they didn't discuss "Hail." I don't know the history of the usage, and when it was popular or lost favor, but it shows up a lot in the old versions of English bibles like Wycliffe and King James.

I love this - two professionals who love their profession going on gleefully.

The motto of Providence, RI is "What cheer?" - dating back to the 17th century - and when I was young, there were businesses in RI named What Cheer. I specifically recall a laundry service by that name - mostly because they advertised on television with a catchy jingle. Also, there's a town in Iowa called What Cheer. 😊😊

Also "Salute" meaning "safe" makes perfect sense. The idea of a salute is to show you don't have a weapon in your hand (right hand because right handed bias). Tanks salute by pointing the barrel as low as can go, planes salute by flying in a formation that can't be used for attack - all showing that they are "safe".

In the Royal Navy, when a routine 'pipe' is made over the main broadcast in a warship, the first words are usually "D'ya hear there?...", with the conclusion almost invariably being "That is all!"

Thanks Rob for this. I can listen you for hours and hours. The clarity you possess while speaking, very few people do that.

"Comment allez-vous à la selle?" for "Comment allez-vous?" would be a funny but incorrect etymology. There is no trace of it on Google Books or Gallica, except once when a doctor actually asks about someone's stools. It only means "How do you go?", much like "How's it going?". People also used the phrase "Comment vous portez-vous?", meaning "How do you carry yourself?". Both refer to the general state of health of the person you're talking to.

This was amazing, you guys are a pleasure to listen to!

"Pronto" in American English is borrowed from Spanish. "Pronto" means 'soon' or 'quickly' in Spanish.

A very enjoyable canter through greetings and farewells... Though, as you will be aware "to greet" in Scots is to "cry". "He was greeting after he lost his bike last weekend".

Most common greeting where I'm from in Ireland is probably 'well boy?', or 'well girl?', or just 'well?' on its own. Just like how 'how're you?' as a greeting is not really a question, 'well?' isn't really a question either, but the response is the same, just well also.

I was surprised Hey / Hej didn’t make it into the conversation, given the Scandinavian influence on the English language.

I love you guys. Thanks for the outstanding lessons.

This is great! Just the area I loved most about my English curriculum! I'm already a superfan! Thanks!

About « Comment allez-vous à la selle? » I could now somehow relate it to the phrase “ir aos pés” (literally “go to the feet”) that is used to say that someone is doing well, as in recovering from being sick. It’s also used as a question, similar to “how is he doing now?” It’s used in the south of Brazil in cities with strong influence from German immigrants. Also, about “hoy” it just reminded me as the preferred greeting all over Brazil, “oi”

My brother used to answer the phone: Yes? Curt, but to the point.

Thank you both, enjoyed it very much (and learned something too) 🙏🙏🙏

This was just great. I was sad when it ended because I felt it was just scratching the surface. I am looking forward to the next one.

What a great series! Excellent work.

I love language and both word etymology and phrase history, so I'm now subscribed to two of Rob's channels. The rapport you two have is very comfortable to listen in on. Note: It may just be my ears, but Jess's mic sounds verry tinny to me, though I can listen with the sound way down without much discomfort. I do have somewhat sensitive ears to certain kinds of sounds, though, so...grain of salt.

I love your podcast, one of my favorite topics!

Love this immediately!

such a lovely show, keep up the great work!! ❤

quite enjoyable and most informative.

I have always been a word nerd. Thank you for this podcast! I am old now but when I was a kid, my two favorite Xmas presents were the latest Webster Dictionary and Roget's Thesaurus in hardback! Lol

Although adiós is the Spanish word for goodbye, I found that in some rural areas of Colombia people were using it as a greeting, but in a very particular situation. If I was walking along a street and see someone was sat outside their house, I would say adiós which sort of meant hello, but I’m not stopping; a sort of hello goodbye in the same moment.

I'm totally fan-boying this youtube channel!! I tell these to co-workers and they're like "Did they use that on GOT?" Narf!

In north Yorkshire we would say “now then” as a greeting (or, in some parts, just a look, a nod, and a grunt)

Minute 4 > I'm not sure whether the term "Ahoi" comes from the Dutch "Hoi". In CZECH REPUBLIC they still say "Ahoi" for "Hello"

looking forward to more content by both of you - thanks for this!

I started my love for etymology with constellations, since I am a star gazer. This was great. Thank you. I would love to hear more of the mishaps of words through Europe: Oxygen, Japan, nice, etc.

That is all! Love it! I so look forward to more podcasts in this great new series!