1834 J. C. Hart Miriam Coffin II. v. 70 There have we been hunting and helloing all over for thee, and lo-and-behold, thou art here!

1861 J. H. Caldwell Thurstons xiv. 117 When I got to Thurston's yesterday mornin', I helloed, and his wife came to the door.

1890 Manitoba Daily Free Press 8 Mar. 3/3 When he had ‘helloed’ half a dozen times.

1901 J. W. De Forest Downing Legends xxxvi. 90 In haste he waved his hat and helloed.

1999 Evening Standard (Nexis) 26 Apr. 33 She'd be back, helloing down the corridors, making us bring our cappuccinos into her office.

1874 Indiana (Pa.) Democrat 10 Sept. She helloed across, ‘Squire, marry us quick!’.

1893 Lowell (Mass.) Daily Sun 11 Nov. 5/4 I helloed the cabin, and a tall, woebegone woman..came out.

1937 Ironwood (Mich.) Daily Globe 15 July 6/4 He would go from table to table, helloing everybody and making wisecracks.

1985 W. Sheed Frank & Maisie x. 227 As a petty campus politician or wardheeler, I was helloed by a lot of faces in the quad.

2006 Washington Post (Nexis) 12 Feb. n1 He realized he had no feel for the South—for sweet potato pie and folks helloing him out of the clear blue.

1889 in W. F. Crafts Addr. on Civil Sabbath (1890) 49/2 The week days are so largely spent in vexatious helloing to the telephone and anxious running after trains.

1895 Critic (N.Y.) 6 Apr. 263/2 There will be no helloing girl to ask you every minute, ‘Have you finished?’ while you are straining your ears to hear what the person you are talking to is saying.

1985 K. Corcoran Robin Hood in Dark Ages 43 The helloing girl.

2006 Western Morning News (Plymouth) (Nexis) 17 Jan. 44 I see a couple I like whom I thought had moved away. This time I do the hailing and helloing.

1826 Norwich (Conn.) Courier 18 Oct. 4 Hello, Jim! I'll tell you what: I've a sharp knife and feel as if I'd like to cut up something or other.

1833 Sketches & Eccentricities Col. David Crockett (new ed.) xiii. 168 I seed a white man walking off with my plate. I says, ‘Hello, mister, bring back my plate.’

1847 J. S. Robb Streaks Squatter Life (new ed.) 154 ‘Hello!—back her!’ shouted the captain, ‘give her a lick back!—starboard wheel, there!’

1881 Cent. Mag. 23 45/2 Hello! where is that boy? Gone, as sure as guns.

1906 J. Fox Knight of Cumberland ii. 28 I shouted: ‘Hello!’ You enter no mountaineer's yard without that announcing cry.

1983 R. Curtis & R. Atkinson Black Adder in R. Curtis et al. Blackadder: Whole Damn Dynasty (1998) 15/2 Hello, hello. Anybody there?

2003 R. Gervais & S. Merchant Office: Scripts 2nd Ser. Episode 1. 47 Sorry. Can I have a—hello—can I have a quick word with everyone?

1827 U.S. Telegraph 25 Sept. 3/5 Hello, sez Joe Laughton, wher's Bil Perry un Olla Parsons?

1838 J. C. Neal Charcoal Sketches 157 He stumbled over something which lay like a lion, or a bundle of wet clothing, in his path. ‘Why, hello!—what do you call this?’

1854 Knickerbocker Apr. 349 Pshaw!..your fingers must be very tender. I'll bring it out for you. Hello! it is rather strong.

1908 J. London Martin Eden i. 2 ‘You mustn't be frightened at us. We're just homely people–Hello, there's a letter for me.’ He stepped back to the table, tore open the envelope, and began to read.

1922 ‘R. Crompton’ Just—William v. 116 ‘Hello!’ said Henry, surprised. ‘That's not taken long.’

1967 Listener 5 Oct. 427/2 ‘Hello,’ I thought, ‘Now she's overdoing it.’

2007 Austral. Mag. (Nexis) 2 June 43 ‘Hello,’ I thought. ‘Something's different.’

1853 N.Y. Clipper 28 May 3/1 Hello ole feller, how are yer?

1888 W. Black Strange Adventures House-boat xxiii Hello—here's more about evolution.

1928 P. G. Wodehouse Money for Nothing iv. 76 ‘Hello, sweetie-pie,’ said Miss Molloy.

1971 Farmer & Stockbreeder 23 Feb. 3/3 Next week..we shall say hello again to most of you, and to 100,000 new readers as well.

2005 J. Weiner Goodnight Nobody vi. 41 ‘Hello,’ said Sophie, air-kissing Janie's left and right cheeks.

2007 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 7 June e4/4 It may be time..to bid farewell to the laceless Chuck Taylor and say hello to the man sandal.

1877 T. Edison Let. 15 Aug. in Antique Phonograph Monthly (1987) 8 1 I do not think we shall need a call bell as Hello! can be heard 10 to 20 feet away. What you think?]

1877 Pittsburgh Evening Chron. 18 Aug. 3/3 The word ‘Hello’ was called into the Fourth avenue box, and directly a still small voice answered at the ear, ‘Hello, what do you want?’.. With the Bell telephone, distance virtually amounts to nothing.

1878 Pop. Sci. Monthly Mar. 563 We were one evening listening to a quartet of college-boys..in the Tribune building, through six miles of wire, when suddenly all was still. ‘Hello!’ we shouted. ‘Hello you!’ was answered back.

1880 Sci. Amer. 10 Jan. 21/1 It is difficult to see how anything could be done correctly amid the din and clamor of twenty or thirty strong voices crying ‘Hello! hello, A!’ ‘Hello, B!’.

1892 R. Kipling Lett. of Trav. (1920) 94 A..millionaire..clawing wildly at the telephone... ‘Hello!.. Yes. Who's there?’

1906 Fort Wayne (Indiana) Jrnl.-Gaz. 13 May 14/1 At a dinner some time ago Thomas A. Edison claimed the credit for inventing the greatest time-saving device of the telephone service. He said he was the man who suggested using the word ‘hello’ instead of the clumsier expressions of the earlier days–‘Do I get you?’ and ‘Are you there?’.

1922 S. Lewis Babbitt iv. 41 On the telephone they said only:..‘Oh, Hello, 343?’

1950 T. S. Eliot Cocktail Party ii. 94 The house-telephone rings... Hello! yes, show him up.

1973 J. Wainwright Pride of Pigs 169 She..picked up the receiver, waited for the S.T.D. pips to stop, said ‘Hello?’ and..recognised her brother's voice.

1999 C. Brookmyre One Fine Day in Middle of Night (2000) 350 ‘Hello, this is the police. What's the emergency?’

2002 ‘H. Hill’ Flight from Deathrow iii. 13 I picked up the receiver. It was Zevon—he'd had it on ‘ring back’. ‘Hello?’ said Zevon. ‘What took you?’‘I was unconscious,’ I said.

1985 B. Gale & R. Zemeckis Back to Future (film) Hello, hello? Anybody home? Hey! Think, McFly. Think.]

1989 P. Munro U.C.L.A. Slang 48 You put the popcorn maker in the fridge? Hello!

1997 Spy (N.Y.) May–June 10/1 Another angry Rent -ophile writes ‘Hello!!! Did you even get what Rent was about???’

1998 J. Manos & D. Chase College (HBO TV shooting script) 10 in Sopranos 1st Ser. (O.E.D. Archive) Dad, hello! Our hotel's right there. Frustrated, Tony quickly takes a second road into the motel.

2001 K. Lette Nip 'n' Tuck 1 The me who understands that if shop mannequins were real women, they'd be too thin to menstruate. (I mean, hello? There are three billion women in world who don't look like supermodels. And only six who do ).

2005 E. Barr Plan B (2006) v. 70 He's working in Paris every weekend for six months? Well, hello? Go to Paris for a weekend with him.

1854 ‘G. Greenwood’ Haps & Mishaps 87 Strange barbaric whoops and hellos.

1897 M. Kingsley Trav. W. Afr. 45 The amount of ‘Hellos’ ‘Are you theres?’ and ‘Speak louder, pleases’..that must at such times be poured out and wasted..before the break [in telephonic connexion] is realised.

1932 Ogden (Utah) Standard-Examiner 22 Jan. 1/1 There is a point where a loud ‘Hello’ will echo and re-echo until at last it comes as a voice out of the depth of the gorge.

1974 T. Morrison Sula ii. 91 There were scattered hellos and nods.

1991 V. Bugliosi Sea will Tell i. 20 They exchanged hellos and friendly glances.

2004 A. Bidulka Flight of Aquavit viii. 102 If you see him, pass him a hello.

1883 Indiana (Pa.) Democrat 12 Apr. Daisy Bush was the hello girl in a telephone exchange.

1889 ‘M. Twain’ Connecticut Yankee xv. 177 The humblest..hello-girl..could teach gentleness..to the highest duchess.

1928 Daily Chron. 4 Feb. (headline) Brave Hello Girls.

1971 New Scientist 17 June p. iv That was the day we said Goodbye to the Hello girls.

2007 Townsville (Queensland) Bull. (Nexis) 5 Mar. 12 Recollections of being a ‘hello girl’ in the early days of the telephone exchange.