hole

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /həʊl/, US /hoʊl/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English hole,^[2][3] inherited from Old English hol (“hollow place, cave, orifice, perforation”), the noun use of the adjective hol “hollow, concave”,^[2][4][3] from Proto-Germanic *hulan,^[2][4] from Proto-Indo-European *kel- (“to cover, conceal, save”).^[2][4] Germanic cognates include Old Saxon and Old High German hol, Old Norse holr and German hohl “hollow”, and Gothic us-hulon “to hollow out”.^[2][4] It may also come partly from Scandinavian.^[2] As an adjective it was displaced by hollow, except in dialect.^[2] The verb is Old English holian.^[2][4] It is related to hell, hall and conceal.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A hollow place or cavity in a solid body, a pit or den: 946 in the OED.^[5] Barnhart's first Middle English record is before 1200, in the Ancrene Riwle.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Hollows or cavities of the body are from about 1300,^[2][5] and the obscene slang use for the vulva is implied from the mid-14th century.^[2] The worst cell in a prison, first of London's Counter for debtors, is from the 1530s,^[2][5] and a dingy lodging from the 1610s.^[2][5] A small cavity into which the ball is sunk in a game is from the 1580s,^[2] and the golfer's hole in one is by 1914.^[2] “A fix, a scrape” is from 1760.^[2][5] In New England, a shallow cove, as in Woods Hole, is from the 1630s.^[2] The verb hole up, to take shelter, is American by 1847,^[2] and “to drive a ball into a hole” is by 1867.^[2] Like a hole in the head is attested by 1944.^[2]

Timeline

• 946 – a cavity, a den.^[5]
• c. 1300 – a cavity of the body.^[2]
• 1530s – a prison cell.^[2]
• 1580s – in ball games.^[2]
• 1610s – a dingy dwelling.^[2]
• 1760 – a fix, a scrape.^[2][5]
• 1847 – hole up.^[2]
• 1914 – hole in one.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A hollow place in a solid body; a cavity.
2. An opening through something; a perforation.
3. An animal's burrow.
4. A fault or flaw: holes in the argument.
5. A small, dingy or unpleasant place.
6. An awkward situation; a fix.
7. In golf, the cup into which the ball is played, or a division of the course.

Verb

1. To make a hole in.
2. To hit or drive into a hole.
3. To take shelter, usually with up.

Word family

• holeless
• holey
• hole out
• hole up

Related words

• hollow
• hell
• hall
• conceal
• helmet
• hull

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology