In this special edition of “Word of the Week,” I’m writing in a chilly IHOP near a highway in Waco, Texas. I’m down here as part of my political reporting class and its coverage of Tuesday’s primary. We’ve been here since Friday, and along the way, I’ve been kissed on the head, hugged and given a free dinner by the generous people of Texas.

In addition to their southern hospitality, they’ve donated a word: howdy. This word that many associate with the South comes from the phrase “How do you?” or “How-do-ye (how-d’ye)?” with the latter coming into usage in the late 1500s.

It’s often used as an interjection used for a warm, cordial greeting, but it was originally meant as an inquiry about the health of one’s friends, with the phrase-question, “How fare you?”

In this sense, it made its first written appearance in English in about 1575, in Gabriel Harvey’s Letter-book, with the line, “To requite your gallonde of godbwyes, I regive you a pottle of howedyes …” (sic). Harvey was a humanist scholar and a friend of the English poet Spenser. A rope-maker’s son, he attended Cambridge and was a Fellow of Pembroke Hall who enjoyed taking notes in the margins of his books. He loved to scribble, which probably helps his reputation as a rhetorician who truly loved to compile knowledge on a broad range of topics, including math, medicine, navigation and poetry, among other topics.

A good example of this “How fare you?” version of “howdy” can be found in 1697, in Sir John Vanbrugh’s The Relapse, or Virtue in Danger, with the fragmented line, “He has already sent how-do-ye’s to all the town” (sic). According to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Vanbrugh was an English architect, risqué playwright, soldier and “wit” — a model Renaissance man well placed in the court of King George I. His greatest achievement was the design of Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, built as an expensive way of saying “thanks” to John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough (1650–1722; and yes, the ancestor of the Churchill of our century) for beating the French (always a good reason — just kidding).

Saying “a howdy” was also used to ask how people were faring in terms of health; our modern version is more akin to a “hello,” and started showing up in American English for good in the early 1800s.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a good modern example of this type of “howdy” can be found in Edward Eggleston’s The Graysons, a Story of Illinois, in 1888, with the line, “‘Howdy, Rachel!’ said Henry Miller … and ‘Howdy! Howdy!’ came from the two sisters, to which Rachel answered with a cordial ‘Howdy!’” (sic).

As related to us by the Oxford Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature, Eggleston was an American author from Indiana known for his children’s fantasy stories and enjoyable textbooks. He spent his early days as a circuit rider (a frontier preacher) in the backcountry of the Midwest. Later, he became a more settled pastor, editor and contributor to various children’s magazines.

So the next time you see a friend (or a random stranger), make sure to shout a hearty “Howdy!” You’ll feel like you’re in Texas. And that’s a good feeling. Please feel free to submit your word suggestions, and until next time, cheers!

[Reach columnist Will Mari at features@thedaily.washington.edu.]