hallow

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -æləʊ
  • (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈhæləʊ/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

  • (US) IPA^(key): /ˈhæloʊ/
• Rhymes: -ɒləʊ
  • (US, dialectal) IPA^(key): /ˈhɑloʊ/
  • Homophone: hollow (in dialects with the father-bother merger)

Etymology 1

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

Noun

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").

2. (obsolete, in the plural) The relics or shrines of saints or non-Christian gods.

   To seek hallows: to visit relics or shrines, in the belief that the saints themselves are present there.

Derived terms

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

Translations

holy person

• Bulgarian: светец (bg) m (svetec)
• Chinese: 圣人 (zh)
• Danish: helgen c
• 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) m, santa (it) f
• Korean: 성인 (ko) (seong'in)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: helgen (no) m

  Nynorsk: helgen m

• Portuguese: santo (pt) m, santa (pt) f
• Russian: свято́й (ru) (svjatój)
• Serbo-Croatian: светац m (svetac)
• Spanish: santo (es) m, santa (es) f
• Volapük: (♂♀) saludan (vo), (♂) hisaludan (vo), (♀) jisaludan (vo)

Etymology 2

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 *kóylos (“safe, unharmed”). Cognate with Dutch heiligen (“to hallow”), German heiligen (“to hallow”). 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.
   • 1599, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, 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.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:consecrate

Derived terms

• behallow
• hallowed
• hallower
• rehallow
• unhallow

Translations

to sanctify

• Bulgarian: освещавам (bg) (osveštavam)
• Danish: hellige, helliggøre
• Dutch: heiligen (nl)
• Finnish: pyhittää (fi)
• French: sanctifier (fr), bénir (fr)
• German: heiligen (de), heilig machen, sanktifizieren, weihen (de)
• Gothic: 𐍅𐌴𐌹𐌷𐌰𐌽 (weihan)
• Greek:

  Ancient: ἁγίζω (hagízō), ἁγιάζω (hagiázō)

• Hungarian: megszentel (hu)
• Italian: santificare (it)
• Latin: consecrō
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: hellige, gjøre hellig

  Nynorsk: heilage, helge, gjere heilag

• Old Norse: helga
• Polish: święcić (pl), poświęcać (pl)
• Portuguese: santificar (pt)
• Russian: освяща́ть (ru) (osvjaščátʹ)
• Scottish Gaelic: naomhaich
• Spanish: santificar (es)
• Swedish: helga (sv)
• Tok Pisin: tambuim (tpi)
• Turkish: kutsamak (tr), kutsallaştırmak (tr)
• Volapük: saludükön (vo)

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.
   • 1749, Henry Fielding, chapter IV, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume III, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], OCLC 928184292, book VII:

     […] for the conversation (if it may be called so) was seldom such as could entertain a lady. It consisted chiefly of hallowing, singing, relations of sporting adventures, b—d—y, and abuse of women, and of the government.

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, 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

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, page 93:

     If the sun were a hallow sphere of its present size and the earth were placed at the center[...]. 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, pages 208:

     But it was not a hallow victory.