Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun dated A female
telephone operator
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word hello girl.
Examples
Sorry, no example sentences found.
tammanycall commented on the word hello girl
an American switchboard operator in the field during WWI. Hello girls were female volunteers who were subject to all Army regulations. They were expected to be "moral", married, and, in most cases, at least 25 years old. After the war, they faced difficulties getting their honorable discharges, as the pertinent laws were written using the word "men" instead of "persons" or "soldiers".
(Words matter.)
April 1, 2009
bilby commented on the word hello girl
You can't put punctuation in Wordie tags. Hence u.s. army will not work as a tag. us army should work perfectly well. May I also politely ask why there is a need to tag a word with both world war i and ww i?
April 1, 2009
Gammerstang commented on the word hello girl
(noun) - (1) A girl who operates a telephone switchboard. --William Craigie's Dictionary of American English, 1940 (2) The use of the word "hello" is rigorously barred to the "hello girl." --Booklover's Magazine, October 1903 (3) We had visitors anxious to listen to the sweet voice of the "hello girl." --Boston Transcript, February 1908
April 23, 2018