TGIF! The weekend is almost upon us, dearest Wordlers, and today is 2XP Friday, so you can double your points (for better or worse) if you’re playing Competitive Wordle (see the rules below).

I’ve had a pretty exciting week of gaming and going out and getting lots and lots of exercise both at OrangeTheory and hiking my doggies. I’d say this might be the best week of the entire year for me, a week so surprisingly good that I feel a little unsettled thinking about it. I think I have a problem with becoming used to feeling down, and that breeds a kind of depressive complacency. When things go well, ironically, I start to get stressed out. Surely it will all go topsy-turvy soon!

This is something I think I picked up over the past few years, and something I aim to snuff out in myself. Caution isn’t a bad thing, but you can take it too far. Doubt has a place, much like pain, in our self-preservation. But at times we also need faith and hope and even sometimes recklessness. Fortune favors the bold and all that jazz.

But I digress. Let’s Wordle!

The Hint: Goodbye.

The Clue: This word ends with a vowel.

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Well hello there.

I’m not sure why I went with hairy as an opening guess. Seemed like a good opening word at the time—and it was! I was left with just 21 remaining solutions after my first guess. I slashed that down to just 1 by guessing house, which I guessed because it had three whole vowels in it (note to self: use house as an opening guess).

This left me with just hello, which was pretty obvious pretty quickly. Huzzah for me!

Like yesterday, I got this in three which gives me 1 point but Wordle Bot also got it in three, which gets me 0 points. 1 point total. Not too shabby!

The word "hello" is a common greeting in English, but its etymology is relatively recent. The term is believed to have originated in the 19th century and was popularized with the advent of the telephone.

The first recorded use of the word "hello" as a greeting in English dates back to the mid-1800s. It is thought to be a variation of the earlier hullo or hallo, which were used to get someone's attention or express surprise. These variations might have been influenced by similar sounding words in other languages, such as the French "hola" or the German "hallo."

However, it wasn't until the telephone became widespread that the word "hello" gained widespread usage. When Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in the late 19th century, he suggested using the word "hello" as a standard greeting when answering the telephone. This recommendation helped popularize the term, and it became the go-to way of starting a conversation over the telephone.

So, while the origins of "hello" are a bit hazy and may draw from earlier forms of greeting, its rise to prominence and widespread usage can be largely attributed to the influence of the telephone and Alexander Graham Bell.

I’ve been playing a cutthroat game of PvP Wordle against my nemesis Wordle But. Now you should play against me! I can be your nemesis! (And your helpful Wordle guide, of course). You can also play against the Bot if you have a New York Times subscription.

You can either keep a running tally of your score if that’s your jam or just play day-to-day if you prefer.

I’d love it if you gave me a follow on Twitter or Facebook dearest Wordlers. Have a lovely day!

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