Hiya !

Half of the emails I receive start "Hi!".

In my ignorance I mentally formed a hypothesis that this was an abbreviation of the term "Hiya !" ; and that this was itself a shortened, telegraphic* version of the phrase "How are yer !" - or, for those who speak more proper, "How are you ?" - a simpler form of the very outdated "How do you do ?"

* Telegraphic in the sense of ‘as formerly used in telegrams’ , (weren’t they useful ? Not many of us can remember using them now) for which the convention was to abbreviate the text in order to save money, as they were charged by the word.

I have searched in several of my modest collection of dictionaries of words, idioms, phrases, catchphrases, slang etc, and find one only that comments on "How do you do ?": it is 'used when people meet each other, esp. for the first time'. What is more, we are assured, 'although this phrase takes the form of a question, it is quite correct to say "How do you do ?" in answer'. Which means that by the time this Longman Dictionary of English Idioms was prepared in 1979, it was more polite to reply by repeating the question than by answering it with the words "Very well, thank you. And you ?". Thus the real significance of the question was quite forgotten, and the phrase had become a sort of oral handshake, a formal longhand for "Hello !".

"How are yer ?" is a less sophisticated code for the same thing. "Fine, thanks. You keeping well ?": here both the question and answer at least have real meaning.

As for 'Hiya', I have not so far been able to find it in any of my books of English Phrases. If it isn’t derived from "How are yer ?", where does it come from ?

Which leads back to my hypothesis that "Hi !" is a signal of greeting condensed from "Hiya !". I am wrong. My Encarta Dictionary of 1999 tells me that the interjection 'Hi' is an ancient term dating from the twelfth century, in the days when common people didn’t pass notes to one another because they couldn't write, but weren't too inhibited to shout cheerfully (or warningly) to attract attention. The word has had to wait for some 800 years before becoming used directly in script.

Hiya !