Hewwo

About

Hewwo is an intentional misspelling of "hello" with a cutesy or babyish connotation. The word grew into slang on Tumblr in 2017 as it began being used with a shitposting connotation.

Origin

"Hewwo" has been used in popular culture as a babyish way of saying "hello" for some time. Meme Documentation ^[1] traces an early example of "hewwo" to a Vanity Fair^[2] article in which a woman is quoted as saying "hewwo, did you weally do Pwivate Benjamin?" (shown below).

The top Urban Dictionary ^[3] definition of the term, submitted May 26th, 2006, defines it as a variation of "hello" (shown below).

Spread

The word initially was used in engrish memes, particularly those involving Lu Hao (examples shown below).

On Tumblr, the word had been used sparingly over the years with the babyish connotation. Some popular early posts that have used the word include a text post by letshearitforthisclown^[4] posted October 26th, 2016, that reads "me at a job interview: don’t fuck up dont fuck up kisses the interviewer straight on the lips for like 3 seconds hewwo" (shown below, top) The post gained over 35,000 notes. A post by the since-deactivated chicksalloverme^[5] used the word and gained over 25,000 notes (shown below, bottom).

Tumblr Surge

These were precursors to a larger surge on Tumblr in which "hewwo" became a full fledged meme. In July of 2017, the word began being used in more shitpost-type posts, often met with exasperation (examples shown below). Another popular iteration of the meme includes people walking into scary places and saying "hewwo." Meme Documentation^[1] covered the spread of "Hewwo" on August 8th, 2017.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References