Etymologically
Log in

help

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 14 October 2026 at 22:47. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English helpen, inherited from Old English helpan (“to help, support; benefit; cure”), a strong verb (past tense healp, past participle holpen),[3][4] from Proto-Germanic *helpanan, a word of uncertain origin.[3][5] Its cognates include Dutch helpen, German helfen, Old Norse hjálpa and Gothic 𐌷𐌹𐌻𐍀𐌰𐌽 (hilpan);[3][5][6] Etymonline and Merriam-Webster suggest it may be related to Lithuanian šelpti (“to support, help”).[3][7][8] The noun is inherited from Old English help, helpe (“assistance, succour”), from the same source.[3][5][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Assistance, succour; to help (Old English, about 725, in Beowulf).[10]

Semantic evolution

The intransitive sense “to give assistance” is attested from the early 13th century, and help! as a cry of distress from the late 14th.[3][11] The original strong past tense survived until the 15th century as halp, followed in the 16th by holp, modelled on the participle holpen;[9] the weak form helped appeared in the 13th century, first in the north,[9] and holpen survives in biblical and American dialect use.[3][12] In older writers help could mean “to heal”, as in Shakespeare's “Do wounds help wounds?”[13] From 1584 cannot help meant “cannot prevent or remedy”, and since 1697 “cannot avoid” (I couldn't help laughing).[14] The sense “to serve someone with food at table” (1680s) translates French servir, and gave helping, a portion of food;[3][15] help yourself as an invitation dates from 1894.[3] Help meaning “an assistant” is Middle English (about 1200),[3] but its use for a servant is American, from the 1640s in New England;[3][16] Bartlett (1848) called it the common name there for servants and factory workers,[17] and Weekley explains it as a way of avoiding the “humiliating” word servant.[15] Helpmate (18th century) is an alteration of helpmeet, itself from the biblical phrase “an help meet for him” (Genesis 2:18).[9][18]

Timeline

  • c. 725 – Old English helpan, help, in Beowulf.[10]
  • c. 1200 – a helper, an assistant.[3]
  • early 13th century – intransitive, to give assistance.[3]
  • 13th century – the weak past tense helped.[9]
  • late 14th century – help!, a cry of distress.[3]
  • 1584 – cannot help, cannot prevent.[14]
  • 1645 – a hired servant (US).[16][15]
  • 1680s – to serve food at table.[3]
  • 1894 – help yourself.[3]

Modern meaning

Verb

  1. To give assistance to; to aid: helped her find the book.
  2. To make easier, better or more bearable; to relieve: medicine to help your cold.
  3. To further or promote.
  4. To refrain from or avoid, with can or cannot: couldn't help laughing.
  5. To serve someone with food or drink.
  6. (help oneself) To take something, sometimes without permission.
  7. To wait on a customer.
  8. To be of use; to give help.

Noun

  1. The act of helping; aid or assistance.
  2. A person or thing that helps; a remedy or relief: there was no help for it.
  3. A person employed to help, especially a domestic servant or farm worker; such workers as a group.
  4. Documentation available within computer software.

Interjection

  1. A cry for help in distress.

Word family

  • helpable
  • helpful
  • helpless
  • helpmate
  • helpmeet
  • self-help
  • unhelping
  • helper
  • helping

Usage notes

The American Heritage Dictionary defends don't change it any more than you can help (“than you have to”) as a well-established idiom, although some grammarians object that the logic calls for a negative.[4] It notes that help and aid are often interchangeable, though help can suggest more effectual action, while assist implies a secondary contribution.[4][19]

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  5. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  9. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  11. ^ 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)
  12. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  13. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
  14. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
  15. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  16. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  17. ^ Bartlett, John Russell (1848), Dictionary of Americanisms, New York: Bartlett and Welford
  18. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  19. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House