Howdy is an informal greeting, commonly thought to have originated as a shortened form of the greeting "How do you do?" It was first recorded as part of the Southern U.S. dialect in 1840. Literature from that period includes the use of "How-do, how-do" as a greeting used by Native Americans when addressing Anglo settlers in greeting. The double form of the idiom is still found in parts of Texas as "Howdy, howdy". Without regard to etymological beginnings, the word is used as a greeting such as "Hello" and not, normally, as an inquiry.
It is typically associated with Southern American English, especially from Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, Mississippi, and the northern parts of Louisiana and Florida where the Southern dialect is predominant. It is the official greeting of Texas A&M University. It is also the name of the popular web portal at Texas A&M University.