hale

See also: Hale, halé, hâlé, hâle, halë, and halę

English

WOTD – 16 June 2011

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /heɪl/
• Rhymes: -eɪl
• Homophone: hail

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Etymology 1

From Northern Middle English hal, hale, variants of hole (“healthy; safe; whole”) (whence whole), from Old English hāl, from Proto-West Germanic *hail, from Proto-Germanic *hailaz (“whole; entire; healthy”). See whole for more.

Adjective

hale (comparative haler, superlative halest)

1. (dated) Sound, entire, healthy; robust, not impaired.

   Antonym: unhale

   • 1731 November (date written), Jonathan Swift, “On the Death of Dr. Swift”, in Thomas Sheridan and John Nichols, editors, The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, […], new edition, volume VIII, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1801, →OCLC, page 126:

     His stomach too begins to fail: / Last year we thought him strong and hale; / But now he's quite another thing: / I wish he may hold out till spring!

   • 1883, Howard Pyle, chapter V, in The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood […], New York, N.Y.: […] Charles Scribner’s Sons […], →OCLC:

     "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?"

Usage notes

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

Translations

sound, entire, healthy, robust, not impaired

• Bulgarian: здрав (bg) (zdrav), як (bg) (jak)
• Czech: zdravý (cs), čilý (cs)
• Finnish: terve (fi), hyvinvoiva
• French: bonne santé, sain (fr), pleine forme
• Hawaiian: ola
• Irish: breabhsánta
• Maori: ora
• Russian: кре́пкий (ru) (krépkij), здоро́вый (ru) (zdoróvyj)
• Samoan: ola
• Sanskrit: कल्य (sa) (kalya)
• Tahitian: ora
• Zazaki: rınd (diq)

Etymology 2

From Middle English hale, an alteration of hele (“health”) after Etymology 1. Cognate with Scots hale (“health”), German Heil (“salvation, well-being”).

Noun

hale (uncountable)

1. (archaic) Health, welfare.
   • a. 1530 (date written; published 1568), John Skelton, “Against Venemous Tongues Enpoysoned with Sclaunder and False Detractions, &c.”, in Alexander Dyce, editor, The Poetical Works of John Skelton: […], volume I, London: Thomas Rodd, […], published 1843, →OCLC:

     Then let them vale a bonet of their proud ſayle, / And of their taunting toies reſt with il hayle.

   • 1595, Ed. Spencer [i.e., Edmund Spenser], “Astrophel. A Pastoral Elegie vpon the Death of the Most Noble and Valorous Knight, Sir Philip Sidney.”, in Colin Clouts Come Home Againe, London: […] T[homas] C[reede] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, signature F2, recto:

     Eftſoones all heedleſſe of his deareſt hale, / Full greedily into the heard he thruſt: / To ſlaughter them, and vvorke their finall bale, / Leaſt that his toyle ſhould of their troups be bruſt.

Translations

health, welfare — see health,‎ welfare

Etymology 3

From Middle English halen, from Anglo-Norman haler, from Old Dutch *halon (compare Dutch halen), from Proto-Germanic *halōną (compare Old English ġeholian, West Frisian helje, German holen), from Proto-Indo-European *kelH- (“to lift”) (compare Latin ex-cellō (“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 or pull, especially forcibly.
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 6, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

     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.

   • 1636, John Denham, “The Destruction of Troy, an Essay on the Second Book of Virgil’s Æneis. Written in the Year 1636.”, in Poems and Translations; with the Sophy, a Tragedy, 5th edition, London: Printed for Jacob Tonson, […], published 1709, →OCLC, page 38:

     A ſpacious Breach we make, and Troy’s proud Wall / Built by the Gods, by our own hands doth fall; / Thus, all their help to their own Ruin give, / Some draw with Cords, and ſome the Monſter drive / With Rolls and Leavers, thus our Works it climbs, / Big with our Fate, the Youth with Songs and Rhimes, / Some dance, ſome hale the Rope; at laſt let down / It enters with a thund’ring Noiſe the Town.

   • 1818–1819 (date written), Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Prometheus Unbound”, in Prometheus Unbound […], London: C[harles] and J[ames] Ollier […], published 1820, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 21:

     The wingless, crawling hours, one among whom / —As some dark Priest hales the reluctant victim— / Shall drag thee, cruel King, to kiss the blood / From these pale feet, which then might trample thee / If they disdained not such a prostrate slave.

   • 1842, Alfred Tennyson, “Walking to the Mail”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 51:

     By night we dragg'd her to the college tower / From her warm bed, and up the corkscrew stair / With hand and rope we haled the groaning sow, / And on the leads we kept her till she pigg'd.

   • 1909, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], “A Court Ball”, in The Squire’s Daughter, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, published 1919, →OCLC, page 9:

     He tried to persuade Cicely to stay away from the ball-room for a fourth dance. [...] But she said she must go back, and when they joined the crowd again her partner was haled off with a frightened look to the royal circle, [...]

   • 1912, Robert W[illiam] Service, “The Wanderlust”, in Rhymes of a Rolling Stone, Toronto, Ont.: William Briggs, →OCLC, stanza 1, page 123:

     The Wanderlust has lured me to the seven lonely seas, / Has dumped me on the tailing-piles of dearth; / The Wanderlust has haled me from the morris chairs of ease, / Has hurled me to the ends of all the earth.

   • 1992, Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety, Harper Perennial, published 2007, page 262:

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

Translations

to drag or pull, especially forcibly

• Czech: táhnout (cs) impf, vléci (cs)
• Finnish: haalata (fi), raahata (fi), retuuttaa (fi)
• French: haler (fr)
• Tamil: இழு (ta) (iḻu)

Anagrams

• Aleh, Heal, Hela, Leah, heal

Alemannic German

Etymology

From Old High German *halēn. Compare Icelandic hallur (“steep”), from Old Norse hallr (“rock, stone”), from Proto-Germanic *halluz (“rock, stone; rockface, cliff”).

Verb

hale

1. (Uri) to be steep

References

• Abegg, Emil, (1911) Die Mundart von Urseren (Beiträge zur Schweizerdeutschen Grammatik. IV.) [The Dialect of Urseren], Frauenfeld, Switzerland: Huber & Co., page 35.

Central Franconian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈhaːlə/

Verb

hale (third-person singular present hält, past tense heelt or hielt, past participle jehale or gehale or gehal)

1. Alternative spelling of haale

Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈɦalɛ]

Verb

hale

1. masculine singular present transgressive of halit

Danish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /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

Declension of hale

common gender	Singular		Plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	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, perfect tense har halet)

1. haul, heave, pull
2. drag

Further reading

• hale on the Danish Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^da

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

hale

1. (dated or formal) singular present subjunctive of halen

French

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

hale

1. inflection of haler:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

Anagrams

• héla

Galician

Verb

hale

1. inflection of halar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Hawaiian

Etymology

From Proto-Polynesian *fale, from Proto-Central Pacific *vale, from Proto-Oceanic *pale, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *balay.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈha.le/, [ˈhɐ.le]

Noun

hale

1. house, building
2. institution
3. lodge
4. station, hall

Derived terms

• kaʻa hale (“trailer”)

Verb

hale

1. to have a house

Derived terms

• hoʻohale

References

• Pukui, Mary Kawena; Elbert (1986), “hale”, in Hawaiian Dictionary, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press

Middle English

Etymology 1

Inherited from Old English hē̆al-, hā̆l-, oblique stem of healh, from Proto-West Germanic *halh.

Doublet of *halgh (attested only in placenames), whence English haugh.

Alternative forms

• hal

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈhaːl(ə)/

Noun

hale (plural hales)

1. A corner of an area; a nook or cranny.
2. A hidden or remote place.

Related terms

• halk

Descendants

• English: hale (dialectal)

References

• “hāle, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 2

From Anglo-Norman hale, halle, from Latin halla (“house, dwelling; court; palace; market hall”), from Frankish *hallu, from Proto-Germanic *hallō (“hall”). Doublet of halle (“hall”).

Alternative forms

• halle

Noun

hale (plural hales)

1. hale (temporary structure for housing, entertaining, eating meals, etc.)

Descendants

• English: hale

References

• “hāle, n.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 3

Verb

hale

1. Alternative form of haylen (“to hail”)

Etymology 4

Noun

hale (plural hales)

1. Alternative form of halle (“hall”)

Etymology 5

Noun

hale (uncountable)

1. Alternative form of hayle (“hail”)

Etymology 6

Noun

hale

1. Alternative form of hele (“health”)

Etymology 7

Adjective

hale

1. Alternative form of hole (“healthy, whole”)

Etymology 8

Adjective

hale

1. Alternative form of holy (“holy”)

Norman

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

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology 1

From Old Norse hali.

Noun

hale m (definite singular halen, indefinite plural haler, definite plural halene)

1. a tail (of an animal, aircraft, comet etc.)

Derived terms

• haleben, halebein
• halefinne
• halelaus
• haleløs
• hestehale
• tverrhalehauk

 

Related terms

• stjert

Etymology 2

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

Verb

hale (present tense haler, past tense halte, past participle halt)

1. to haul, heave, pull
2. to drag

References

• “hale” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Old Norse hali.

Noun

hale m (definite singular halen, indefinite plural halar, definite plural halane)

1. a tail (of an animal, aircraft, comet etc.)

Derived terms

• halefinne
• halelaus
• hestehale
• tverrhalehauk

 

Related terms

• stjert

References

• “hale” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈxa.lɛ/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -alɛ
• Syllabification: ha‧le

Noun

hale f

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

Spanish

Verb

hale

1. inflection of halar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Swedish

Adjective

hale

1. definite natural masculine singular of hal