hallow

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English[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

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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 Scots halow, hallow (“saint”), German Heilige (“saint”). More at holy, whole.

Noun[edit]

hallow (plural hallows)

  1. (obsolete outside set phrases) A saint; a holy person; an apostle.
    All Hallows Eve (or Halloween), the night before All Hallows Day (now more commonly known as "All Saints Day").
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

From Middle English halwen (“to hallow, sanctify”), from Old English hālgian (“to hallow, sanctify, make holy”), from Proto-Germanic *hailagōną (“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[edit]

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

  1. (transitive) To make holy, to sanctify.
    • c 1599, William Shakespeare, s:The Life of Henry the Fifth, Act 1, Scene II
      ...I am coming on, to venge me as I may and to put forth my rightful hand in a well-hallow'd cause.
    • 1847, Charles Swain, Dramatic Chapters: Poems and Songs, D. Bogue, pages 324:
      Come hallow the goblet with something more true / Than words we forget in a minute.
Translations[edit]

Etymology 3[edit]

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

Alternative forms[edit]

Verb[edit]

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[edit]

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, pages 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[edit]

Adjective[edit]

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, page 93:
      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, pages 208:
      But it was not a hallow victory.
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