Etymologically
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hole

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 20:51. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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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

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