We Almost Answered the Phone With Ahoy

Short answer Bell wanted ahoy as the phone greeting, but Edison's hello caught on.

When the telephone first came along, there was one problem. What do you say when you pick it up?

Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, suggested ahoy, a greeting used on ships.

Ahoy!a call ships used to hail each other

Ahoy instead of hello?

But the word Thomas Edison used won out. That word was hello.

Along with the telephone, hello spread far and wide as a greeting.

Now ahoy is something people say for fun when they're putting on a pirate voice.

Maybe I'll start answering calls with ahoy today

Alexander Graham Bell's big box telephone, 1876, one of the first commercially available telephones - National Museum of American History - DSC06223.JPG, Daderot, CC0 (source)
Thomas Edison, 1878.jpg, 작자 미상, Public domain (source)