hallow

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ˈhæləʊ/
• (US) IPA: /ˈhæloʊ/, SAMPA: /"h{loU/
• Rhymes: -æləʊ

Etymology 1

Wikipedia

From Middle English halwe (“a saint, holy thing, shrine”), from Old English hālga (“saint”), from Proto-Germanic *hailagô (“holy one”), from *hailagaz (“holy”), from Proto-Germanic *hailaz (“whole, safe, hale”), from Proto-Indo-European *koil- (“safe, unharmed”). Cognate with German Heilige (“saint”). More at holy, whole.

Noun

hallow (plural hallows)

1. (archaic) A holy person; a saint.

   All Hallows Eve (or Halloween), the night before All Hallows Day (now more commonly known as "All Saints Day").

Derived terms

• Hallow-day
• hallowed
• Halloween, Hallow-eve
• Hallow-fair
• Hallowmas, Hallowmass
• Hallow-tide

Translations

holy person

Danish: helgen (da) Dutch: heiligen (nl) Finnish: pyhä (fi), pyhimys (fi) French: saint (fr) m., sainte (fr) f. German: Heiliger (de) m., Heilige (de) f. Italian: santo (it)

Norwegian: helgen (no) Portuguese: santo (pt) Russian: святой (ru) (svjatój) Serbian: светац (sr) (svetac) m. Spanish: santo (es)

Etymology 2

From Middle English halwen (“to hallow, sanctify”), from Old English hālgian (“to hallow, sanctify, make holy”), from Proto-Germanic *hailagōnan (“to make holy”), from *hailagaz (“holy”), from Proto-Germanic *hailaz (“whole, safe, hale”), from Proto-Indo-European *koil- (“safe, unharmed”). Cognate with Dutch heiligen (“to hallow”), German heiligen (“to bless”). More at holy.

Verb

hallow (third-person singular simple present hallows, present participle hallowing, simple past and past participle hallowed)

1. (transitive) To make holy, to sanctify.
   • 1847, Charles Swain, Dramatic Chapters: Poems and Songs, D. Bogue, page 324:

     Come hallow the goblet with something more true / Than words we forget in a minute.

Translations

to sanctify

Dutch: heiligen (nl) Finnish: pyhittää (fi) French: sanctifier (fr), bénir (fr) German: heiligen (de) Hungarian: szentesít (hu)

Italian: santificare (it) Polish: święty (pl) Portuguese: santificar (pt) Russian: освящать (osvjaščát’) Spanish: santificar (es)

Etymology 3

From Middle English halowen, from halow (interjection), from Old English ēalā (“O!, alas!, oh!, lo!”, interjection), probably conflated with Old French halloer.

Alternative forms

• halow, alow, a lo (obsolete)
• hallo, hollo

Verb

hallow (third-person singular simple present hallows, present participle hallowing, simple past and past participle hallowed)

1. To shout, especially to urge on dogs for hunting.

Noun

hallow (plural hallows)

1. A shout, cry; a hulloo.
   • 1777, Robin Hood's Chase, reprinted in 2003, Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, Courier Dover Publications, ISBN 0486431479, page 206:

     Then away they went from merry Sherwood / And into Yorkshire he did hie / And the King did follow, with a hoop and a hallow / But could not come him nigh.

   • 1772, William Read Staples, The Documentary History of the Destruction of the Gaspee, Knowles, Vose, and Anthony, published 1845, page 14:

     I told them, the sherriff could not be admitted on board this time of night, on which they set up a hallow and rowed as fast as they could towards the vessel's bows.

Etymology 4

Adjective

hallow (comparative more hallow, superlative most hallow)

1. Alternative spelling of hollow.
   • 1902, National Council of Geography Teachers (U.S.), The Journal of Geography, National Council for Geographic Education:

     If the sun were a hallow sphere of its present size and the earth were placed at the center, the moon could [...]. Such a hallow sphere would hold more than a million balls the size of the earth.

   • 2003, George A. Lyall, To a Different Drummer: A Family's Story, Xlibris Corporation, ISBN 1401072860, page 208:

     But it was not a hallow victory.