hale

See also Hale, halé, halę, and hâlé

English

WOTD – 16 June 2011    

Pronunciation

• IPA: /heɪl/
• Rhymes: -eɪl

Etymology 1

From Old English hǣlu, hǣl, from a noun-derivative of Proto-Germanic *hailaz (“whole, healthy”).

Noun

hale (uncountable)

1. (archaic) Health, welfare.
   • Spenser

     All heedless of his dearest hale.

Translations

health, welfare

• Finnish: terveys (fi), hyvinvointi (fi)

• Portuguese: sadio (pt), saudável (pt)

Etymology 2

Representing a Northern dialectal form of Old English hāl (“whole”), perhaps influenced by Old Norse heill (Webster's suggests ‘partly from Old English, partly from Old Norse’), both from Proto-Germanic *hailaz, from Proto-Indo-European *kóh₂ilus (“healthy, whole”). Compare whole, hail (adjective). Cognate with Latin salve through Indo-European.

Adjective

hale (comparative haler, superlative halest)

1. Sound, entire, healthy; robust, not impaired.
   • Jonathan Swift

     Last year we thought him strong and hale.

   • 1883, Howard Pyle, The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood Chapter V

     "Good morrow to thee, jolly fellow," quoth Robin, "thou seemest happy this merry morn."

     "Ay, that am I," quoth the jolly Butcher, "and why should I not be so? Am I not hale in wind and limb? Have I not the bonniest lass in all Nottinghamshire? And lastly, am I not to be married to her on Thursday next in sweet Locksley Town?"

Antonyms

• unhale

Usage notes

• Now rather uncommon, except in the stock phrase "hale and hearty".

Translations

sound, entire, healthy, robust, not impaired

• Finnish: terve (fi), hyvinvoiva (fi)
• French: bonne santé (fr), sain (fr), pleine forme (fr)
• Hawaiian: ola
• Irish: breabhsánta (ga)

• Māori: ora (mi)
• Russian: крепкий (ru) (krepkij), здоровый (ru) (zdorovyj)
• Samoan: ola (sm)
• Tahitian: ora

Etymology 3

From Middle English halen, from Anglo-Norman haler, from Old Dutch *halōn (compare Dutch halen), from Proto-Germanic *halōną (compare Old English geholian, West Frisian helje, German holen), from Proto-Indo-European *kelh₁- ‘to lift’ (compare Latin excellere ‘to surpass’, Tocharian B käly- ‘to stand, stay’, Albanian qell (“to halt, hold up, carry”), Lithuanian kélti ‘to raise up’, Ancient Greek κελέοντες (keléontes) ‘upright beam on a loom’). Doublet of haul.

Verb

hale (third-person singular simple present hales, present participle haling, simple past and past participle haled)

1. To drag, pull, especially forcibly.
   • 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays, II.6:

     For I had beene vilely hurried and haled by those poore men, which had taken the paines to carry me upon their armes a long and wearysome way, and to say truth, they had all beene wearied twice or thrice over, and were faine to shift severall times.

   • 1992, Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety, Harper Perennial 2007, p. 262:

     They will hale the King to Paris, and have him under their eye.

Translations

to drag or pull forcibly

• Finnish: raahata (fi), retuuttaa (fi), haalata (fi)

Anagrams

• heal
• Leah

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Danish

Pronunciation

• IPA: /haːlə/, [ˈhæːlə]

• audio

  (file)

Etymology 1

From Old Norse hali.

Noun

hale c (singular definite halen, plural indefinite haler)

1. tail, brush, scut
2. bottom, fanny

Inflection

    Inflection of hale

common gender	Singular		Plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative, dative and accusative	hale	halen	haler	halerne
genitive	hales	halens	halers	halernes

Etymology 2

From late Old Norse hala, from Middle Low German halen.

Verb

hale (imperative hal, infinitive at hale, present tense haler, past tense halede, past participle har halet)

1. haul, heave, pull
2. drag

External links

• Hale on the Danish Wikipedia.da.Wikipedia

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Dutch

Verb

hale

1. singular present subjunctive of halen

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French

Verb

hale

1. first-person singular present indicative of haler
2. third-person singular present indicative of haler
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of haler
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of haler
5. second-person singular imperative of haler

Anagrams

• héla

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Galician

Verb

hale

1. first-person singular present subjunctive of halar
2. third-person singular present subjunctive of halar

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Hawaiian

Etymology

From Proto-Polynesian *fare, from Proto-Oceanic *pale, from Proto-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian *balay, from Proto-Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian *balay, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *balay, from Proto-Austronesian *balay.

Noun

hale

1. house, building
2. institution
3. lodge
4. station, hall
5. host, hospitable person

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Jèrriais

Verb

hale

1. first-person singular present indicative of haler
2. third-person singular present indicative of haler
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of haler
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of haler
5. second-person singular imperative of haler

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Polish

Pronunciation

• audio

  (file)

Noun

hale f

1. nominative plural of hala
2. accusative plural of hala
3. vocative plural of hala

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Spanish

Verb

hale (infinitive halar)

1. third-person singular imperative of halar