hallow

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English halwen, also halowen,^[2][3][4][5] inherited from Old English hālgian (“to make holy, consecrate”),^{[6][7][8][5][4]} from hālig (“holy”), the source of holy.^[9][10][11] It goes back to Proto-Germanic *hailagōną (“to make holy”),^[1][7] which also gave Old Saxon hēlagōn, Old High German heilagōn, German heiligen, Middle Dutch hēligen and Old Norse helga.^[6][12][13] Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary take the family back to Proto-Indo-European *kailo- (“whole, uninjured, of good omen”),^[7][5] the source of whole and health.^[7][14] The noun is inherited from Middle English halwe,^[2] inherited from Old English hālga (“a saint”),^{[6][8][15][13]} the definite form of the adjective used as a noun,^{[6][15][13][16]} although Etymonline derives it from the verb.^[7] The OED explains the difference from holy: in hālga the consonant group shortened the vowel, and the g became w.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

To make holy, consecrate: Barnhart dates the Old English verb to about 725, in Genesis A,^[3] and Bosworth–Toller quotes ðú scealt hálgian híred ðínne, "thou shalt hallow thy family", from the Old English Genesis.^[8] The first Middle English form is the past participle halgod, before 1121.^[3] The noun, a saint, is also Old English, recorded in the Will of Alfred.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline and Weekley note that the verb rendered Latin sanctificō (“to sanctify”) in Christian translations.^[7][10] Already in Old English it meant to make holy, to consecrate, to honour as holy and to keep a day holy.^[6][8] The use for consecrating a bishop or a king died out after 1325.^[6] Chaucer used the verb four times and Gower twice.^[17] Johnson (1755) defined it as "to consecrate; to make holy", and also "to reverence".^[18] Later it widened beyond religion to anything greatly respected, such as a question hallowed by tradition.^[13][4] The noun kept an -en plural in the south in Middle English, while halwes appeared in the Midlands and the north before 1300.^[6] It was little used after 1500 and now survives only in All Hallows and its combinations,^[6][13] such as Halloween and Hallowmas.^[10][15] Scots, Irish and northern English dialects kept Hallow-day for All Saints' Day and Hallow-fair for a fair held in early November.^[19]

Timeline

• c. 725 – Old English verb, to make holy.^[3]
• Old English – noun, a saint.^[6][13]
• before 1121 – past participle halgod.^[3]
• c. 1200 – plural noun, shrines or relics of saints, or heathen gods and their shrines.^[6]
• c. 1300 – the forms halwen and halowen.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make holy or set apart for religious use; to consecrate: The bishop hallowed the new chapel at dawn.^{[9][4][20][6]}
2. To honour as holy; to revere or respect greatly: a town that hallows its old bridges.^{[9][4][20][6]}
3. To keep a day or festival holy; to observe it solemnly.^[6][13]
4. (obsolete, Old English–1325) To consecrate a person to an office, such as bishop or king.^[6][13]

Noun

1. (obsolete, except in All Hallows and its combinations) A saint; a holy person.^[6][13][10]
2. (obsolete, c. 1200–16th century) In the plural, the shrines or relics of saints; heathen gods or their shrines.^[6][13]

Word family

• hallower
• hallowed
• Halloween
• Hallowmas
• dishallow
• unhallow
• All Hallows
• Hallowtide

Related words

• holy
• whole
• health
• halloo
• hollo

Usage notes

A verb of the same spelling, "to shout, urge on with shouts", recorded from about 1369 in Chaucer, is probably from Old French halloer (“to pursue with shouting”), and is now rare; it is related to halloo and hollo.^[6][4][13] A noun, "a loud shout", follows from about 1440.^[6] In Scots and Yorkshire dialect hallow is also a form of hollow.^[19]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
9. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b c d Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
15. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
16. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
17. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
18. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
19. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
20. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin