Hello and Goodbye Trivia Game | Thematic Fun

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. When was the word 'hello' first found in written English?

Answer: 1826

Alternate spellings such as hallo, hollo and hullo had been in use since at least the 16th century but the first surviving example of hello in the modern spelling is from the October 18, 1826 edition of the Norwich (Connecticut) Courier. Hello came into common usage in the US while hullo remained a frequently seen spelling in Britain for some time.

2. "The story of life is quicker than the wink of an eye, the story of love is hello and goodbye." What psychedelic rocker wrote these lyrics shortly before his/her premature death?

Answer: Jimi Hendrix

'The Story Of Life' was written on the eve of Hendrix' untimely death. The lyric begins with,
'The story of Jesus
So easy to explain
After they crucified him,
A woman, she claimed his name'

The final verse is Jimi's farewell,
'The story Of life is quicker
Than the wink of an eye
The story of love
Is hello and goodbye
Until we meet again'

3. Alexander Graham Bell first used hello as a greeting on the telephone.

Answer: False

Actually, Bell was a proponent of saying "Ahoy" to greet callers on his invention. Other than among pirates and Mr. Burns on 'The Simpsons', this choice never seems to have caught on.

4. Who should receive credit for the use of hello as the standard telephone greeting?

Answer: Thomas Edison

Edison suggested that rather than a bell, the telephone should inform the recipient that a call was being received by simply letting the caller announce "hello". He felt that greeting could be heard 10 or 20 feet away and would save the cost of a bell in the phone's manufacture. Although the bell became standard, the use of hello as a greeting did, too.

It's been theorized that Edison, who was known to feel that Bell had 'stolen' the telephone's patent from him, wished to keep Bell's name from being associated with the device.

Mark Twain was an early technophile and among the first private citizens to own a phone, having installed one in his house in 1877. In the same year Rutherford B. Hayes installed a phone in the White House. In 1878 Alexander Graham Bell gave a demonstration of his telephone to Queen Victoria at her Osborne House residence on the Isle of Wight.

5. By the 1880s the use of hello as a greeting had become quite common as witnessed by a nickname given to the rapidly growing number of telephone operators. What were they called?

Answer: Hello Girls

Hello-Central is the name of the daughter of Sandy and The Boss in Mark Twain's 'A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court'. She was so named because The Boss, in Arthurian times, talked in his sleep, muttering "hello-central" because his beloved in his modern time was a telephone operator. His Arthurian-era wife, Sandy, overheard this and knew that Hello-Central was someone close to him and gave their child that name.

'Hello, Hello' is a 1967 song by Sopwith Camel also covered by Tiny Tim. Hello Dere was the catch phrase of Marty Allen, one half of the 1960s comedy team of Marty Allen and Steve Rossi. Enough people thought that Allen's nasal delivery of "Hello, dere" was funny that the team were a big TV and night club attraction for several years.

6. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, which is the preferred spelling of our standard farewell?

Answer: Goodbye

The OED prefers the unhyphenated 'goodbye' and lists goodby and good-by as alternate spellings. It makes no mention of the hyphenated good-bye. Despite that, prior to the middle of the 20th century, good-bye was the most common spelling in written English, but has since been surpassed by goodbye.

7. To what word or phrase does goodbye trace its origin?

Answer: God be with ye

Goodbye originated as a contraction for God be with ye or God be with you. By the middle of the 17th century the phrase was shortened to God b'wy. By 1700, God was expanded to Good as in Good-b'wy, likely in imitation of common greetings like good morning, good day, and good night.

8. In the Beatles song 'Hello Goodbye', 'I say High, you say Low. You say Why? And I say - ' what?

Answer: "I don't know"

"Hello Goodye" was released in November of 1967 with "I Am The Walrus" as the B-side. The single reached number one in the UK, the US, Canada, Australia and other countries.

9. A county in Texas passed a law replacing hello with "heaven-o" as its official greeting because hello contains 'hell'.

Answer: True

Incredibly, in 1997 County Commissioners in Kleberg County, near Corpus Christi, unanimously designated "heaven-o" as the county's official greeting. The council calls the greeting a "symbol of peace, friendship and welcome" in this "age of anxiety". Telephones at county offices began to be answered with "heaven-o". Flea market owner Leonso Canales Jr. who led the campaign to replace the offensive hello said, "When you go to school and church, they tell you 'hell' is negative and 'heaven' is positive."

10. Which "Goodbye" movie starred the husband of actress Paula Prentiss?

Answer: Goodbye, Columbus

'Goodbye, Columbus' was a 1969 comedy based on a book by Philip Roth. It starred Ali McGraw and Richard Benjamin. Benjamin also starred in 'Catch-22', 'Westworld', and 'The Sunshine Boys' among other films before going into directing. His directorial debut was 'My Favorite Year' for which Peter O'Toole received a Best Actor Oscar nomination. Benjamin and actress Paula Prentiss were married in 1961 and have two children.

Source: Author wilbill

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor agony before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Hello and Goodbye Trivia Quiz

Hello and Goodbye are among the most used words in the English language. Unless you're a hermit you probably wish someone Hello and Goodbye every day. How familiar are you with these commonly used words?

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