A handshake is still the most common way to greet someone, especially if you are in a formal situation at work. Shaking hands is the most common greeting between men, between women, and between men and women.
A handshake is the most common greeting, and should be firm yet not too strong. When greeting each other, close friends may hug or kiss one another on the cheek, while others may simply offer a nod. In some casual settings, your name may be announced to the group at large.
A proper salutation begins with Sir or Madam and ends with “I have the honour to be your very obedient servant.” When meeting an acquaintance, it is never acceptable to simply nod and touch your hat. Politeness demands that a man should always lift his hat from his head.
Hello is considered a variant on a number of other similar words—like hallo, holla, and hollo—that were used to hail and shout to gain attention and recorded prior to the 1800s. For example, the word hallo demanded that the listener come to a stop or cease what he or she was doing.
It's just the British way of saying hello. When a Brit asks, “You alright?”, the best response is always, “Yeah, great thanks.
It's used as a term of affection by the upper classes – “I love you, darling”, down to the taxi cab driver on the street – “Where you goin', darlin'?” It's though that this term of endearment is really a reworking of dear, from the Old English deorling, becoming deyrling during the 1500s, and eventually darling.
interjection. cheer·io ˌchir-ē-ˈō chiefly British. usually used as a farewell and sometimes as a greeting or toast.
The phrase has been used widely in British English since the late 1980s, a development partly attributed to the success of Australian soap operas such as Neighbours in the United Kingdom.
British etiquette dictates courteousness at all times, which means forming an orderly queue in a shop or for public transport, saying excuse me when someone is blocking your way and saying please and thank you for any service you have received is de rigueur.
Thomas Edison is credited with putting hello into common usage, and he urged people who used his phone to say it when they answered. His rival, Alexander Graham Bell, thought the better word was "ahoy."
An older greeting form was hail be thou, meaning 'be healthy'. So how we express even such an apparently basic language function like greeting changes with time. Just to drive home the point, the Old English Wes hāl could be used to say 'goodbye' as well as 'hello'.