Hello was first used in print in 1833 and became popular from the 1860s.

An 1833 American book named 'The Sketches and Eccentricities of Col. Davey Crockett' had the word 'hello' in print, later becoming popular in the 60s.

An 1833 American book named 'The Sketches and Eccentricities of Col. Davey Crockett' had the word 'hello' in print, later becoming popular in the 60s. 'Hello' was originally used to attract attention or express surprise, which most people learned first. It has only been in use for about the last 150 years in the 1000-year history of the English language. Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, but Thomas Alva Edison himself claimed to have initiated the use of 'Hello' upon receiving a phone call, which required people to address an unseen and unknown person. An older term used for greeting or salutation is 'Hail,' which dates back to the Middle Ages, but it was still used in Shakespeare’s time.

Meanwhile, the Oxford English Dictionary says the first published use of 'Hello' goes back only to 1827. Ammon Shea, the author of The First Telephone book, said that people in the 1830s said hello to attract attention.

However, before that, 'Ahoy,' word had been around longer, at least 100 years longer than Hello. It, too, was a greeting, which, derived from the Dutch 'Hoi,' meaning Hello. Bell used this 'Ahoy' for the rest of his life.

An American book named 'The Sketches and Eccentricities of Col. Davey Crockett,' written in 1833, shows one of the first usages of the term 'hello' in print versions, years before the Birth of Thomas Alva Edison. This was later believed to have become popular in the 1860s.