When did "Hey" supplant "Hi" as a mode of informal greeting?

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

We went from "Hello" to "Hi" to "Hey". When did this start happening by you?

Mid-late 90's, i think, for us in Michigan.

― kingfish, Friday, 24 June 2005 18:28 (twenty years ago)

"Howdy" still reigns in these parts, stranger.

― andy --, Friday, 24 June 2005 18:30 (twenty years ago)

HEY DERE

― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 24 June 2005 18:30 (twenty years ago)

i dunno but the next step is to spell it 'hay'

― fcuss3n, Friday, 24 June 2005 18:31 (twenty years ago)

I believe it started around 1875 in Montana, followed by "Hey/hay is for horses" in 1877.

― Huk-L, Friday, 24 June 2005 18:32 (twenty years ago)

i remember an early Bloom County strip(1983?), where Binkley encounters a black chick in his class that he crushes on. she greets him with a "hey", which startles him, then explains it as a California thing.

also, when did the SoCal "Dude!"-use permeate national consciousness? I blame Trey & Matt.

― kingfish, Friday, 24 June 2005 18:36 (twenty years ago)

Try Chainsaw from Summer School.

― Huk-L, Friday, 24 June 2005 18:37 (twenty years ago)

I was totally duding it way before Trey and Matt -- but then maybe it was a Colorado thing, too.

― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 24 June 2005 18:46 (twenty years ago)

I believe it started around 1875 in Montana, followed by "Hey/hay is for horses" in 1877.

"Dude" probably had a similar origin.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Friday, 24 June 2005 18:48 (twenty years ago)

I'm from the NW and all forms of slang were blamed on california (easier to blame than the blacks). Funny Bloom County combined the two. The Dude all the time thing dates back at least to Fast Times. "Dude, I'm so wasted!"

― Another Allnighter (sexyDancer), Friday, 24 June 2005 18:50 (twenty years ago)

"Hello", "hi", and "Hey" — General verbal greetings. The latter two are less formal. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first citation of "hey" is found as early as 1225, and is defined as "a call to attract attention . . . an exclamation to express exultation . . . or surprise." "Hey"'s often used stand-in, "Hi", is actually much newer, having become popular in the 1920s. Many languages use the word as a greeting, though a variety of spellings exist, including "hei" and "hej".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoken_greeting

― I know some come from the reality (wetmink), Friday, 24 June 2005 18:51 (twenty years ago)

Dude is definitely surfer in origin, probably taking it from Westerns in the early sixties.

― andy --, Friday, 24 June 2005 18:53 (twenty years ago)

So if I travelled back to 1919, just to say "hi", no one would understand me?

― Huk-L, Friday, 24 June 2005 19:05 (twenty years ago)

nope.

Dude: 1883, "fastidious man," New York City slang of unknown origin. The vogue word of 1883, originally used in ref. to the devotees of the "aesthetic" craze, later applied to city slickers, especially Easterners vacationing in the West (dude ranch first recorded 1921).

― paulhw (paulhw), Friday, 24 June 2005 19:23 (twenty years ago)

I predict that this thread is just going to culminate in a 3,000-post discussion of the classic Nickelodeon show "Hey Dude."

― n/a (Nick A.), Friday, 24 June 2005 19:32 (twenty years ago)

As long as we're discussing the hey, what about the yeah? Hello-oh yes, hell-oh yesss.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Friday, 24 June 2005 19:50 (twenty years ago)

still, "dude!" used as often in daily convo as it currently is didn't come about in its latest round until recently...

― kingfish (Kingfish), Friday, 24 June 2005 19:51 (twenty years ago)

what is that? i can't parse it.

xpost to walter

― sleep (sleep), Friday, 24 June 2005 19:51 (twenty years ago)

still, "dude!" used as often in daily convo as it currently is didn't come about in its latest round until recently...

I perceived this as coming from South Park some years ago, at least in my area. i.e. at first it was accompanied with a tone of voice immitating kyle or stan or whatever, then that part faded away.

― sleep (sleep), Friday, 24 June 2005 19:54 (twenty years ago)

Or just "imitating"

― sleep (sleep), Friday, 24 June 2005 19:54 (twenty years ago)

what is that? i can't parse it.

"Hey Dude" made me think of "Hey Ya" which made me consider the fact that I constantly replace the word "yes" with "yeah" just like I replace "Hello" with "Hey." So the song "Hey Ya" becomes "Hello Yes."

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Friday, 24 June 2005 20:44 (twenty years ago)

I perceived this as coming from South Park some years ago, at least in my area. i.e. at first it was accompanied with a tone of voice immitating kyle or stan or whatever, then that part faded away.

yeah, same here, as i mentioned up thread.

― kingfish (Kingfish), Friday, 24 June 2005 20:46 (twenty years ago)

For me, "Dude" started in the early 80's. My sister's older stoner buddies used in breathlessly and frequently, pronouncing it "deed." These guys were also the first folks I knew to popularize pitbulls, and they all drive Camaros and Barracudas.

― andy --, Friday, 24 June 2005 21:47 (twenty years ago)

i use "dude" as an exclamatory form of greeting: "dude! you must see this new nike ad!" not so much "hey, dude, what're you eating?"

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 24 June 2005 21:49 (twenty years ago)

i don't know what podunk towns y'all are from, but dude has been a staple of my and my friends' vocabulary since the late 80s.

― oops (Oops), Friday, 24 June 2005 21:51 (twenty years ago)

I remember getting really annoyed with "hey" when every episode of "Friends" had about 6 dozen greetings of "hey". So mid 90s is my guess for common usage in the UK.

― Markelby (Mark C), Friday, 24 June 2005 22:14 (twenty years ago)

i don't know what podunk towns y'all are from, but dude has been a staple of my and my friends' vocabulary since the late 80s.

i'm from the same podunk town as you, so it's no surprise that we agree on this point.

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 24 June 2005 22:25 (twenty years ago)

dude i don't know if there's a connection but i think it was right around the time that everyone was wearing OceanPacific and Vuarnet gear.

― oops (Oops), Friday, 24 June 2005 22:28 (twenty years ago)

that would be 1987, then.

― kingfish (Kingfish), Friday, 24 June 2005 23:38 (twenty years ago)

also,

T/S: "yo" vs "hey" vs "dude" as a means to get attention or emphasize the importance of a point.

― kingfish (Kingfish), Friday, 24 June 2005 23:44 (twenty years ago)

I think Marks onto something with the Friends thing. It certainly got one too many people saying "how YOU doin?" round my way...

― Trayce (trayce), Saturday, 25 June 2005 03:32 (twenty years ago)

Hey is a Southern thing.

― Orbit (Orbit), Saturday, 25 June 2005 03:35 (twenty years ago)

i turned from "hi" to "hi there". i hate it. time for some retraining. dont think i hardly ever say "hey".

― ambrose (ambrose), Saturday, 25 June 2005 11:50 (twenty years ago)

Mark OTM. It's part of the reason I hated the Friends vibe, even though I actually quite liked the show.

― Dave B (daveb), Saturday, 25 June 2005 12:19 (twenty years ago)

everything is always older than you think

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 25 June 2005 12:41 (twenty years ago)

In many European countries it is used, and spelt "hej". I even know a couple of British ppl who spell it "hej" when they e-mail me. I remember asking somebody "How long do you think it will be before 'hey' becomes the universal word of greeting?" to which they replied "It already has, hasn't it?"

― MarkH (MarkH), Saturday, 25 June 2005 12:58 (twenty years ago)

Oh what the hell, let's sing the Hey Dude theme song...

"It's a little wild and a little strange..."

― Ian Riese-Moraine eats nation-states for breakfast! (Eastern Mantra), Saturday, 25 June 2005 13:02 (twenty years ago)

everything is always older than you think

this is a good rule of thumb for anyone in graduate school, btw.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Saturday, 25 June 2005 14:20 (twenty years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.