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halt

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Halt, lame, is a native word; halt, a stop, came from German.[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /hɒlt/, /hɔːlt/, US /hɔːlt/, /hɑːlt/[4]

halt1 lame

Etymology

Lame is inherited from Middle English halt, inherited from Old English healt, recorded in the compound lemphalt (“limping”),[1][3][5] from Proto-Germanic *haltaz,[1][3][2] cognate with Old Saxon halt, Old Frisian halt, Old High German halz and Old Norse haltr.[1][3][2][5] Barnhart and Etymonline connect it with words for breaking, such as Latin clādēs (“destruction, disaster”) and Ancient Greek κόλος (kólos, “docked, curtailed”),[1][3][5] though Hoad calls its origin unknown.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lame, crippled: before 700.[6][1]

Semantic evolution

The verb, to limp, is from about 825 and is now archaic;[6] to waver is from the 14th century, and to proceed lamely from the 15th.[2] The noun, the lame collectively, is from about 1200,[3] a limp from 1599,[6] and foot rot in sheep from 1750.[6]

Timeline

  • before 700 – lame.[6]
  • c. 825 – to limp.[6]
  • c. 1200 – the lame (noun).[3]
  • 14th century – to waver.[2]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. (archaic) Lame; crippled.

Verb

  1. To proceed uncertainly; to waver.
  2. To be defective, as an argument or a line of verse.
  3. (archaic) To limp.

Word family

  • halting
  • haltingly

halt2 stop

Etymology

The stop is borrowed from German Halt, the imperative of halten (“to hold, stop”), from Old High German haltan (see hold),[1][3][2][5] first in the military phrase to make halt, after Halt machen,[1][2][7] partly through French halte and Italian alto.[1][3] Earlier English forms were alt and alto (1591–98).[1][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A temporary stop on a march or journey: 1591 in the OED, the 1590s in Etymonline.[6][3]

Semantic evolution

The German military command passed into the Romance languages in the 16th century.[3] The verb is from 1656, in Blount's Glossographia,[1][5] and halt as a word of command from 1796.[3] In Britain a halt is a small railway station without staff (1910).[6][7]

Timeline

  • 1591 – a stop on a march.[6]
  • 1656 – to halt (verb).[1][5]
  • 1796 – halt! (command).[3]
  • 1910 – a railway halt.[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A stop or interruption of movement or progress.
  2. (chiefly British) A minor railway station without permanent buildings.

Verb

  1. To stop, or to bring to a stop.

Interjection

  1. A command to stop, especially when marching.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins