Ahoy!

ColoradoGuy

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A recent issue of the Times Literary Supplement has a fascinating tidbit buried deep in a review of a book about English manners ("Are People Getting Ruder?"). It reminds us that inventors and authors are pretty powerless to do anything about what people do with their work.

Alexander Graham Bell had definite ideas about how his new invention was to be used. In particular, he instructed that the proper way to answer the telephone was by saying, "Ahoy!"

Actually, that would have been interesting.
 

TerzaRima

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Ahoy! would be far superior to the latest iteration, which seems to be an atonal "Yeah?"

Now I kind of want to read that book. Her opening para made me laugh--I actually learned how to exit a car like that circa the 1980s.
 

dahosek

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"Hello," is actually a bit of telephone-age neologism. Before the telephone it was primarily used to express surprise (e.g., "Hello! What's this?"). Worth noting for those who write historical fiction.