The use of “hey” in place of “hello”.

How about howdy?

I was using Hey in French as a greeting, and my friend got offended

I've noticed that a number of books I've read from 1940's and before, from the UK, use "hallo" rather than "hullo" or "hello".

The first time I ever heard "Hey!" used as a greeting, was Gomer Pyle using it on The Andy Griffith Show. I always thought might be where it started.

The term "oi" is more of a "hoy" but the h is dropped. I'm an English male. Hoy!, for example, is more about admonishment or negatively putting someone down who may be either cheeky or trying to get away with something. Form example, if I was cheeky to dad, he'd say oy, with a dropped h for being cheeky. The Yiddish version is more of an elongated oyyyyyy, and more about dispair or exasperation than a greeting. At least this is my take on the topic

Willie Mays was known as the "Say Hey Kid" from early in his career with the NY Giants which started in 1951 and all baseball loving Canadians like me were aware of that, but I don't think we started to use "hey" as another way of saying "hi" until at least the 60s and perhaps later.

Most London Cockeggs slur out 'alright' as a greet over Hi, Hello etc.

'Oi' means what Helen said back in 2006.

sdsds

@IngisKahn ... All these years and no one has bothered to tell that "Hay is for horses." ... Not hey.

Hey has been around a long time ... hey
c.1200, variously, in Middle English, hei, hai, ai, he, heh, expressing challenge, rebuttal, anger, derision, sorrow, or concern; also a shout of encouragement to hunting dogs.

Þa onswerede þe an swiðe prudeliche, `Hei! hwuch wis read of se icudd keiser!' ["St. Katherine of Alexandria," c.1200]

But hey, what the heck! As a Southerner, I say we kept it alive so that the folks in the rest of the country could use it.

I am going to change my name to hey for my first name ,hey also for my middle name , last name Fat Albert.People could then call out, Hey,Hey Hey Fat Albert.

In the UK Oi" or Hey" would usually be said in a sharp manner to bring a persons attention to something you were maybe concerned about i.e." Oi what do you think you are doing"
Hey or Hay used as a greeting would not be used in general as it would be seen as an Americanism.
"All right John" or "Hi John" etc. would only be used in a very casual friendly way." All right" is not intended or taken as an enquiry into a persons well being, just like "Howzitt" which sounds absolutely ridiculous to me.
But this is why we define American English and UK English, and as long as we can understand each other (all be it with some misunderstandings at times) what does it matter.
I would suggest from the pathetic attempt by BRUS to ridicule "All right" he should get it into his head that "Howzitt" is the variant. it's NOT English.

I've seen some here say it was from Old English 'hello' or one of the Scandinavian languages 'hel or Germanic 'heil' but the word is originated from the Roman 'eho' meaning to call to attention.

The origin is NOT from the word 'hello' but from 'hey!' a call to attract attention, c.1225, possibly a natural expression to obtain attention. It's recent usage as a form of greeting is just a coincidence to 'hello, heil and hel'.

My mom is Swedish, so I grew up saying "Hey hey", which, reading this, I realize should be "Hej, hej", but no one in Missouri, where I grew up ever has said anything anything about it, several of my friends picked up the habit from me.

As a child, born and bred in the heart of London, I would say, 'ay ? when what I meant was, "What did you say ?" I wasn't alone in this and the common response from a parent would be, " 'ay is for 'orses." 'h' was mostly redundant in London back in the thirties but there were plenty of 'orses around.

@ Nick - I (also a Brit) totally agree, both on pronunciation and meaning. I just checked it in The Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary and was rather surprised not to find it under hoy, thinking oi was more a dialect thing. And their definition is 'used to attract somebody's attention, especially in an angry way' - Like - 'Oi, you! What do you think you're doing?'.Not exactly a greeting. But on the other hand on the street or in the pub In you might well hear something like 'Oi mate, got a fag?' I suppose we could say that's a greeting of sorts. (for non-Brits, fag=cigarette)

@Jackie - English English? Are you excluding the rest of us who share these isles. But I do agree with you about the exclamation mark.
@Frightful - Nice one. Out of interest, did you also add aitches to e's as in 'this 'ere hedge of the table'. I take it you know the Heineken ad - "The wa'er in Majorca don't taste like what it ought'a". I've just noticed there's an 'oi' in it with a noticeable aitch. 'Oi, Dell! Any danger of some refreshment in 'ere' - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4VFqbroi1I

I like "hey" when used as a friendly greeting - the tone of voice makes clear when you mean "hey!" in a "stop thief!" sense.
But "Brit" ? Now that is indeed horrible.

@Brus - that was a bit personal, wasn't it?

W Will - not in the slightest personal, no, not at all. British is fine, one of my own passports is indeed a British one. Sometimes I even live in Britain. Nothing against British people at all, sorry if that was the impression given.
My great distaste is for the 'word' Brit, which, like Yank or Frog when intended to denote someone's nationality, is, well, horrible, no matter how affectionately intended. Did American newspapers carry headlines about the Olympics like: " Yanks win lots and lots of medals "? or French ones :" Frogs don't win many medals, do we? " ? So why did British ones do "Brits do really rather well in medals table!" (I paraphrase all these, of course, because I have forgotten what they actually said). To me, 'Brit' ranks on the yuk! scale along with 'expat' which seems to be used to mean British people who are living as foreigners in another country. Nothing wrong with doing that, of course: I'll do it myself if it doesn't stop raining here soon. It's the word itself which grates on the ear like fingernails scraped on the blackboard (or is it chalkboard?). What's wrong with "foreigners" as the mot juste? In Thailand they use the charming term "farangs" which is the same thing, and it is my first choice of word here.
Again, sorry about the wrong impression given, of course nothing personal was intended.

Well, I'm a foreigner in France at the moment, but I'm not an expatriate because I'm still officially resident in Britain. The French are unlikely to have a headline beginning "Frogs..." but they might well have one beginning "Les Rosbifs...". One might well see a headline "Scots do well..." or "Welsh..." or "Northern Irish..." but "British do well..." sounds a bid odd and old-fashioned. "Great Britain does well..." is a bit of a mouthful and so would probably get reduced to "GB does well..." but some people don't like the term "GB" any more than others like "Brits" - so who to please?!

Odd? Old fashioned? Yes - what's wrong with that?
Scots ... Welsh ... Northern Irish ... er, isn't one missing? Ah yes, the Engs! Scots tenth in medal table, were we an independent nation, Irish really good too, and the Welsh, and the Engs! You ask Who are the Engs? and I say they are the not odd and not old-fashioned word for the English.
It may seem odd and old-fashioned to say the British did well, but get used to it, Jackie; 3rd in the world behind two nations with mega-huge populations feels good!

Sorry, Jackie, but to get back to the point of this area of discussion, I should have said "but hey! get used to it, Jackie; 3rd in the world behind two nations with mega-huge populations feels good!" (We are not meant to be talking about Brits and expats, really, it is all meant to be about hey!.)

@Brus - I didn't think you were criticising me for being British; we may have our disagreements, but I know you're not that bad. Of course all of us indulge in attacking each other's arguments, but I think it's a bit of a slippery slope if we start directly attacking the language that other people use in their comments. Call me old fashioned, but I find that rather bad manners. A few people on the opposite side to me in these debates use what I consider pretty pompous and over-formal language, but I'd never dream of calling it 'horrible'. I did say somewhere else about an expression you used, that I wouldn't personally use it, but I admitted it was quite correct and I certainly didn't use this sort of emotive language. Sorry if I'm over-reacting.

As for Brits, it's just a bit of shorthand. I don't see the connection with Yanks and Frogs as these are not normally used by the inhabitants of those countries. I regularly read and occasionally comment on 'Separated by a 'common language', an excellent website run by an American linguist working in Britain on the differences between American and British English, where the word Brits is regularly used as a form of shorthand. Just because Americans don't like being called Yanks and French don't like being called Frogs, doesn't mean we Brits have to reject such a useful word.

And as for expat, it doesn't simply mean foreigner or foreign (it's also an adjective). I live and work in Warsaw. Saying I'm an expat is rather shorter than saying I'm a foreigner living and working here. What's more, there are certain pubs that are popular with British and Americans living and working here, and so they are known as expat pubs. As well as being longer, calling them pubs that foreigners go to wouldn't have the same meaning; they could just be for tourists. Expat has a very precise meaning, presumably just as farang has.

W. Will,
I apologise if I have offended you by quoting your use of forms of English which I have then said are not to my liking, and I take aboard the gentle way in which you have phrased your rebuke.
Okay, I wince every time I hear "Brit" or "expat" and feel that just because they are increasingly widely used (which is exactly what I am moaning about) does not mean I should just roll over and say "whatever" or "fair enough, live with it then". British and Briton are handy enough words without needing to drop another syllable, and there have been American bars and English pubs and Irish bars and pubs across the world for a very long time, and I have extensive experience of very many of them across three continents. I very much hope they will continue to stay in business long enough to be there for my next visit. In Bangkok, for example, I recommend Molly Malone's in soi Convent, close by Silom, as a fine Irish bar, well liked by the better sort of farang.
But I did not intend to offend you, as I have said before, only to rail against the dreadful debasement of the English language as so eloquently described elsewhere by Jackie from France. She sums up much of what I have grumbled about in the past, and I agree with everything I have just read from her.

@Brus = 'nuff said (if you'll excuse the colloquialism). But to get back to expat. English pubs and Irish pubs (which rarely have much to do with Ireland) in other countries are not the same as expat bars. Expat bars are where people living and working in a foreign country go. In Warsaw they are just as likely to be Polish pubs as any other. And it is hard to find a more efficient way of talking about the expat community. Or for example saying that you like to avoid the expat scene. One word and everyone understands what you mean. And foreigner really won't do, because the word expat is used when I'm talking with other native speakers, to whom I'm definitely not a foreigner. (Couldn't get out of using the dreaded 'whom' there!)

@Brus - just noticed something you said. British people virtually never refer to themselves as Britons. This is mainly used by newspapers and to
talk of the ancient Britons.

@Brus ... While many in the US would find nothing wrong with the word "yank", it is for that they are indeed "yanks" ... a northerner. The bloodiest war in US history was the War between the States ... aka the Civil War ... and aka by those in the South as the "War of Northern Aggression" or "Lincoln's War". In that war, the northerners were known as "yanks" or "yankees". Still, to this day, it's an insult in the South to call someone a "yank" or "yankee". The word is often said with "damn" ... as in "damn yanks" or "damn yankees".

It's brings a smile to a Sutherner's face when little suthernisms such as "hey" break out and spread to the rest of the country. Sooner or later, they'll get to saying "y'all" as well! lol

AnWulf: I thank you for your most lucid exposition of the usage and meaning of the word "Yank". I may sometimes adjust my usual greeting on entering a pub, to "harrorehh, y'all, howzitt?!" (Scot, US and SA) but only if I know the folk already there, and only if I am intoxicated on arrival. But I would never call them Yanks, for 1) fear of causing offence and 2) because I never have gone and never do go to the US, so they wouldn't be.

Another thread hijacked by AnWulf and Brus. Hey guys, how about we don't clutter these threads with so many side arguments and petty personal attacks?

@Wellid - I think you're probably new here, at least as a commenter. AnWulf and Brus have, admittedly, pretty idiosyncratic (and opposite) ideas about English, and I tend to disagree with just about everything Brus says about English, but they're both quite harmless and generally pretty civil. They really are part of the furniture round here, and Pain in the English wouldn't be what it is without them.

And if you think they monopolise the threads or produce a lot of side arguments, there's someone you obviously haven't met yet (and I'm not talking about me!).

The length of these threads seems to be more or less unlimited, so they're not taking argument space from anyone else.If you don't like their contributions, just skip them, as I do when AnWulf goes into his strange dialect (ideolect would perhaps be a more suitable word here, as I think he's the only person in the world who speaks it). Or when Brus starts teaching us English grammar :). But they both add a bit of colour to the discussions. And AnWulf can be quite knowledgeable sometimes :).

Mark Twain, in a letter to Bob and Louise Howland, used the phrase "It's a great country--Hey, Bob?" in an 1870 letter the context seeming to mean "Isn't that so, Bob?"

I just thought of something it could be rap to blame for spreading Hey around because rap is so popular with people under 50. Just saying hey.

As mentioned by other posters, "Hey" comes from the Swedish "HEJ" which means hello or hi. Swedes settled in what is now Delaware in the 1600's and later in the midwest and their hej was taken by others as an exclamation.

Just found this thread on 'hey' and not wishing to throw a spanner in the works, but I know of two old North West England farmsteads, Ridding Hey and Sir Richard Hey. I think in old England a hey was an area of land, it dates back to pre 1760.

As a Southerner from NC, I find most of these comments ignorant. Hey is used in place of hello or to get someone's attention when you see them in person. I say hello when I answer my phone. And it isn't Swedish, at least not here. North Carolina was settled by Scots, Irish and Germans. The Swedes didn't have anything to do with how we speak.
So hey and yall is a part of my heritage and I am proud of it. Don't care where it came from,don't care if you don't like it.
I wish yall had picked up "yoos guys" instead and left hey, shrimp and grits and red velvet cake to the people of the South.

I found this thread while looking for the origins of the term 'hey' -- I was studying Native American culture, mainly Navajo, and found that the term for greeting someone is (phonetically) ah'tee'hay. I was wondering if the term was shorten slightly to our hey -and used as a greeting. The Southern areas could have been exposed to this influence due to the tragic exportation of the Tribes in the late 1880's-- many were taken to Florida, the Carolinas, and other parts south. Any thoughts on this suggestion?

In South African English "hey" is used to emphasise a question mark, as in "Is you ous (translation 'guys') cummin (coming), hey?" The connection between these fine people and Navajo Indians is perhaps a bit of a tenuous one, hey?

True-- but I doubt if this is germane to the basic question of /hey/ as a greetings. The Canadians have been using a form of hey to end a statement for many years~"Welcome to the The Great White North, 'ay?" but that's not the concern of this query. We've established there are many paths and usages for the word... I want to know if the Amerindian had a hand in its use as a greeting. Although your comment leads to another and just as interesting question as to how that usage got started as well! Hey, we'll just have to check that out, too, hey?

Hej is Swedish etc. Oi is from oyez, Latin/French for "hear ye!" Or Listen up! Which is Spanish, Latin languages. Thus showing English as invasions of ceilings and the Norman conquest.
I did read far enough to hear from the Swedish contingent, but stopped halfway through, so maybe this has been already answered.
"Oyez, oyez" was changed to "hear ye, hear ye" in legalese sometime after the Elizabethan period, but I don't know exactly when off hand.

Well, from Carson City/Reno, Nevada, 76 years old, and have lived in Nevada since 1862. For many years, I traveled all over the state on business, and had friends in two-thirds of the small towns, if not more.
I have to disagree with the non-use in the West comment, albeit in a slightly different context. I often heard, on parting, someone add "Say Hey to {John, Mary, &c.]" Not a greeting to the individual, but a request to pass along a greeting and remembrance to someone "hello from ...."

This is an interesting very long thread about the term "hey". I happened to google, the question of "When is it proper to used "hey" vs "hi"?, because i was curious whether it's acceptable in business environment to use hey on email conversation. I would say between peers it's ok. But using "hey" to your boss seems unprofessional? On the contrary if your boss or another individual in your company who is of higher position than yourself would address you using "hey" seems degrading to you? Let me know what you think?

In the Sixties there was a particular album by Jim Neighbors of TV fame. He played a 'hilly-billy idiot' named Gomer Pyle in the Marine Corps in a TV series called, strangely enough, 'Gomer Pyle, USMC'.
Jim had a set of pipes that would be the envy of many a Broadway star and had many very good album releases of serious music, but he did this one album as Gomer, goofy accent and all. The single from the LP was 'You Cain't Rollerskate in a Buffalo Herd', if that sets the feel of the whole thing for you! One of the more rollicking and rousing numbers was 'Gomer Sez HEY!'.
Now I'm not sure if it's just me, but I think anything that could be associated with Gomer Pyle should be immediately classified as non-professional and should be avoided at all costs! Unless, of course, your boss is a hilly-billy.... And I would consider it a bit of a slight to be addressed that way if you're not one.
*Ya'll kin say 'hey' t'me all ya'll want. Downright neighborly soundin' 'round these parts! Ah'm proud t'be a' Appalachian American!

Well, Spence, as you mentioned it was the 60's. And there was plenty of lame tv out there. But you kind of got me riled up with the stings to Appalacia. They (the Irish and the Scots) settled in the remote mountains to be left alone. Had enough of the English telling them how to do and when to do it.

They faced disease, famine and loss of life to come to America where they assumed they would be free. But the English were back, over HERE.

The Battle of Kings Mountain was the turning point in the war. The mountain boys traveled from all over and vanquished the British. The North got their gumption back and the English retreated.

And although this has nothing to do with the word "hey", neither did most of your comments. I am proud of my southern heritage and the fact that we speak English with an American accent rather than a British one thanks to my ancestors. And Yes, they were there.

So say hey to all the people in your family who helped found this country since the 1600's.

And heaven forbid you don't have any rednecks at family reunions that you attend. I feel sorry for you. We rednecks can be so ornry.

Oh and Spence, it's hillbilly, And if you don't know when to use the word "hey", just don't use it. You aren't one of us. And we aren't sorry about that.

Like a few others have said, I think of "hey" in greeting as
expressing mild but pleasant surprise upon seeing the
other person. The intonation often reflects this, too.
In fact, the degree of surprise can be dialed in with the
intonation. There's "hey" and then there's "hey!".

I grew up in Southern California, and would never
say "let's stop by to say 'hey'".

In Australia we use the word hey in a few different ways but only very recently (Via USA tv shows like Friends and Buffy the vampire slayer) have we started using hey instead of hi as a greeting. It is extremely colloquial, used nearly exclusively by younger people. The word hey is used on its own to attract attention and I see it most commonly in a mixture of the two, a friendly attention seeking greeting, in texts (Hey, wt r u up 2?) and emails and informal chat between young people.

We also use hey as an exclamation of negative interjection (Hey! that's my apple!) interchangeably with Oi. There are a lot of expat Brits (pommies) in Aust.

Hey is also used as an identifier for a question where you are expecting an agreeable answer. (all done, hey?)

Or on it's own (What?) (Hey?) (Huh?)

Hey is a jack of all trades kind of word,

Okay Idiots, here's the etymology of the modern usage of the salutation: "Hey".

Although this word, in its various forms, has been used since in the English language since the late 15th century, it was not used as a common salutation until late 1950's. Before then, "hey" was a word used to call attention to a emergency situation or to gain the attention of someone beyond earshot.

Then, in the late 1950's, the word "Hey" became a greeting for post WWII veterans as an alternate to "hello" or "hi". How this came about, I don't know. What I do know, is that the usage of the word "Hey" as a greeting became popularized in the movie "American Graffiti" in 1973. This was carried on by the character "Fonzie" played by Henry Winkler in the TV series "Happy Days" which was aired from 1974-1980. "The Fonze" greeted his friends by saying "heeeey" whilst using an thumbs up sign.

I was in high school while this was all going on. I never said "Hey" to any of my high school friends until about 1980, when, all of a sudden, "hey" became the cool way to say "hi". It has remained that way to this date.

Long story short, the salutation "hey" in modern American English is due to a movie and a TV show. Nothing more, nothing less. That's how language evolves. Get over it.

Heeeey......

I wonder what the etymology of 'Okay Idiots' as a salutation is. In fact, 'hey' as an interjection goes back rather further than that, to 1200, apparently.

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=hey.

I wonder if it does not stem even further back to ancient Hebrew or ancient Semitic language. From my understanding the letter "hey" represents the divine breath or revelation. So "hey" would be a revealing of oneself, in this case God, to that of others via divine breath. We are aware of the others presence when we see them move(like breathing) and communicate, but we say they are not with us when they cease to do so (i.e. death). So when we express "hey" we are actually calling peoples attention to the fact that we are present and breathing, we are indeed alive. It is also a recognition to the other that we are aware of them also. It is a very old custom of greeting that brings attention to one another, that makes aware that each breathes and that each is acknowledged. It is really a relational word, that has perhaps taken on, unfairly, negative meanings.

Someone asked me how to respond to a text message (from a prospective employer) which began "Hey John" .
My usual advice is use whatever they do - use "Dear" if they do, and "Hi" if they do - but, hey, "Hey" sounded just too informal, and "Dear" too formal, so the solution was "Hi " + first name.
"Hey" is NOT the same as 'Hello' or 'Hi'

Did I get an earful on a "Hey!" when I was in London!!

The concierge in my apartment really took offence when I casually greeted him - "Hey!"

I got something on these lines:
"That's very disrespectful of you. How dare you 'hey' me?!"

So I have been ever so careful when using "hey" over a "hi" or a "hello". I thought this was a very English thing, but quite surprising to find quite a few English folks on this page to be okay with "hey".

Hey, what the heck!

I have a problem with being addressed by the word "Hey". First that is not my name and second I find that people do that because they don't respect you enough to use your name. Third, because they will continue to do so because they think they are better/higher than you. Lastly, it makes me feel that as a human being, we haven't made it as far as we thought.

I have discovered an American comedy show on British television called 'Everyone loves Raymond', in which all members of a family whose ancestors come from Italy but who now live on Long Island greet one another on each entrance on set by saying 'hey' in a listless manner. In Britain it would suggest you are about to rebuke or criticise the addressee, and is no good as a greeting for this reason. On the other hand the British really don't know what to say instead of 'hey'. Here in Dorset people enquire, seemingly anxiously, "You all right then?" on a rising note which can end in a shriek. I would prefer 'hey', but settle for 'good evening/morning/afternoon'.

Title: "Hi is for Girls"
Hey everybody! Its almost 11 years later from the original post. There was a fellow Cincinnatian who posted how we used it here. Cincinnati is considered the "Gateway to the North" & we have both Northern & Southern influences here.

Hey, to my understanding, started as an exclamation followed by a comment or question. Eg: "Hey! How have you been?" "Hey! Nice to see you!" and then everything else got dropped and we are left with "Hey!" then the exclamation got dropped and so "Hey" came to carry the same meaning as "Hi".

Now here's what I meant by "Hi is for girls". Around here girls use Hi more than guys. Hi is cuter and softer.

If you're male and speaking to another male informally and say "Hi" it might be interpreted as effeminate, old-school or just plain nerdy. Now if the two males are on more formal speaking terms then "Hi" would not be interpreted that way.

So if you don't know someone say "Hi, how are you." If you're meeting with the guys to go out to the gym or a night in the city & you say "hi" then you might be teased unless you've all found the softer sides of yourselves.

Trust me, when you get to my age, mid 60s, you will start complaining when you hear words spoken which you have grown up with all your life, being given totally different meanings and you are supposed to calmly accept these new meanings without having a clue why they have been changed. If someone comes up to me and says hey as a greeting, then for me I am waiting for them to finish. Even when I just hear it in plays or films, it makes me feel very uncomfortable. I'm not writing here to say it's right or wrong just to make folk understand that it can be very unsettling for some of us.

Hey is fast becoming the silent language of lovers. It speaks volumes though only one word is spoken. It's a deep expression of emotional feelings from one or both parties. It is softly spoken and sometimes can't be heard by 3rd parties present but the two minds that are connected. Mostly used when there's a barrier to loving each other openly, often used in electronic messaging to call each others attention or to just say "I'm missing you " while playing safe in case the message drops into wrong hands, then it can be easily classified as "an ordinary greeting"

It's possible that the origin of the greeting, "hey" goes back a very long time ago, like maybe the 1600s -- to the Native American Navajo greeting, "Yata Hey"

"Hey" is Southern and has a warm inviting feeling that is expressed, much different than just "Hi".

This thread has been running for years and years! I don't believe at all that "hey" goes back to a native American greeting. It's been used in British English for a very long time to attract someone's attention dramatically, as in "Hey, you there!" or "Hey, stop that!" It's used mostly towards strangers; otherwise one would call them by name. It's certainly nothing to do with the "silent (??) language of lovers" in Britain. It can be aggressive, and is never used to address someone in an email.
Hi is definitely an import from America, still resisted by some who don't wish the English language to become americanised, and is an informal greeting equivalent to "hello". It's become accepted as a greeting at the beginning of an email, instead of the more formal "Dear...".

One thing I like about the www is no matter what they subject, somebody's discussing it. Glad I found this page.
I don't necessarily mind when the word is used verbally- "Hey there, how are you doing?" or "Hey Bob, over here!!" but it sets my teeth on edge when it's used to address someone in emails, on forums, and in texts, and from my experiences it always comes from individuals who are not known to the recipient.

There is a male coworker that when ever he speaks to the females in our office always starts with "Heyyy name, how's it going?" Is it just me, i feel it is so disrespectful and annoying. What are your thoughts?

I cannot find any other origin for the word 'Hey' Where I live in Liverpool we have a famous Children's Hospital called 'Alder Hey' and I was talking to someone about that word. It was suggested that it may have originally been Hay but I seem to remember as a child thinking the word 'Hey' had some meaning associated with the countryside.

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I am a Mid-Westerner mostly living abroad for the last few decades but visiting the U.S. annually. I have never heard this greeting in person, but I have been struck by the frequency of it in U.S. t.v. shows. I was raised with the phrase "Hey/Hay is for horses." In other words, the word was considered rude and inappropriate except in such cases as "Hey, watch where you're going" or (less acceptable) "Hey, that's a great idea."

Looking at the material cited from the Urban Dictionary ("friendly"), it seems I have been misunderstanding a lot of these shows.

I don't think I will personally "feel" it as friendly if someone uses it on me, but I now know that I should translate it as so -- I guess.

Growing up in Kansas (midwest US), greeting is/was Hi. Moved to (South) Georgia US when I was 12. Greeting here is Hey. Has a special sound with a southern accent (My Georgia history teacher was Ms. Ray, so I got to practice by saying "Hey Ms. Ray". It's not the same as in a sentence such as "Hey, what are you doing?" Reading the comments above re Native American words, I'm wondering if that IS connected.

Hey! You dropped your hat kid...
hey! Leave it alone
Hey!
Hey is to call attention alright. However when speaking or texting an adult specially an older person, your boss, your mother in law, your own mother or father, I feel it should be after you have said a proper greeting. Hello, hey do you know when will the children come from vacation? Better yet skip the hey all together. Personally I see it as a sign of ignorance.

"Hey" is used in Scandanavian countries ( eg: Hej / Hei / Hæ ) it is an actual word - so this is likley where "hey" comes from
In the Netherlands, it is "hoi"

I know sometimes people from the US might feel like they invented English but it's not the case, sorry :-)

Using the word “hey” is so cringe worthy. It sounds uneducated and so American. When businesses use this as their opening email, I wonder who approved of it. Amateurs.

Seeing the word hey is so cringe worthy!!! Informal and practically slang as it gets. When a business uses it as the opening to an email, I really question those in charge.

I grew up in the south and I remember being strongly discouraged to use "hey", especially when trying to get the attention of an adult (as children tend to do). It was a sin equal to tapping someone's shoulder, or tugging at their shirt - it's just rude. I can certainly see using it around close peers but it still strikes me as a little uncouth.

Ok