hola

Meaning

hallo, hoi

Etymology

From Late Middle Dutch hola (“wait up!, hold on!, calm down!”), which also had the dialectal form holla; compare Middle Low German hola!, holda! (interjection), Middle High German holā! (interjection), of obscure origin. Possibly from the imperative of Middle Dutch halen, *holen (“to fetch”) (> dialectal holen), or possibly from Old French holà (“hey!”), from ho (“hold!, halt!, stop!”) + là (“there”).