Howdy is an informal

salutation A salutation is a greeting used in a Letter (message), letter or other communication. Salutations can be formal or informal. The most common form of salutation in an English letter includes the recipient's given name or title. For each style of ...

in the

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often used in the

Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, Dixieland, or simply the South) is List of regions of the United States, census regions defined by the United States Cens ...

. Originally a shortened form of the inquiry ''How do ye?'', it was first used in

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in the 18th century.

Etymology

The word derives from the phrase "How do ye?," which was used in late 16th century England to ask about others' health. The phrase saw increasing degrees of dialectal contraction over time, first being contracted to "how dee," then to "howdy'ee," and finally to its modern form. Despite the etymology of the term, its modern usage is as a greeting and not as an inquiry.

Use in different states

In many rural Southern and

Western states The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to various nations and states in Western Europe, Northern America, and Australasia; with some debate as to whether those in Eastern Europe and Latin America also constitute the West. ...

, especially in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, and Wyoming, ''howdy'' is commonly used in casual contexts as a standard greeting. The term is commonly associated in popular culture specifically with the state of

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, and the usage of the term is a significant and recognizable component of

Texan English Texan English is the array of American English dialects spoken in Texas, primarily falling under Southern U.S. English. As one nationwide study states, the typical Texan accent is a "Southern accent with a twist". The "twist" refers to inland S ...

. ''Howdy'' is also the official greeting of

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

, though the two are not always automatically associated.

References

External links

* McLemore, David.
Saving an Endangered Species: Native Texan Buddy Calk wants "Howdy" to come back, y'all
" ''

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''. January 22, 1989. 16th-century neologisms

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