hale

• IPA^(key): /heɪl/
• Rhymes: -eɪl
• Homophone: hail

From Middle English hele, hæle, from Old English hǣlu, hǣl, from Proto-Germanic *hailį̄ (“salvation, health”), a noun-derivative of Proto-Germanic *hailaz (“whole, healthy”). Cognate with Scots haill, hale (“health”), German Heil (“salvation, well-being”).

hale (uncountable)

1. (archaic) Health, welfare.
   • Edmund Spenser

     all heedless of his dearest hale

Representing a Northern dialectal form of Old English hāl (“whole”), perhaps influenced by Old Norse heill (Webster's suggests ‘partly from Old English, partly from Old Norse’), both from Proto-Germanic *hailaz, from Proto-Indo-European *kóh₂ilus (“healthy, whole”). Cognate with Dutch heel (“complete, full, whole”), Danish hel (“full, whole, entire”), German heil (“whole, intact, unhurt, safe”), Icelandic heill (“complete, entire, whole”), Norwegian hel (“whole, unbroken”), Swedish hel (“whole, complete, not broken; in order”). Compare whole, hail (adjective).

hale (comparative haler, superlative halest)

1. (dated) Sound, entire, healthy; robust, not impaired.
   • Jonathan Swift

     Last year we thought him strong and hale.

   • 1883, Howard Pyle, The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood Chapter V

     "Good morrow to thee, jolly fellow," quoth Robin, "thou seemest happy this merry morn."

     "Ay, that am I," quoth the jolly Butcher, "and why should I not be so? Am I not hale in wind and limb? Have I not the bonniest lass in all Nottinghamshire? And lastly, am I not to be married to her on Thursday next in sweet Locksley Town?"

• Now rather uncommon, except in the stock phrase hale and hearty.

• unhale

From Middle English halen, from Anglo-Norman haler, from Old Dutch *halon (compare Dutch halen), from Proto-Germanic *halōną (compare Old English ġeholian, West Frisian helje, German holen), from Proto-Indo-European *kelh₁- (“to lift”) (compare Latin ex-cellō (“to surpass”), Tocharian B käly- (“to stand, stay”), Albanian qell (“to halt, hold up, carry”), Lithuanian kélti (“to raise up”), Ancient Greek κελέοντες (keléontes, “upright beam on a loom”)). Doublet of haul.

hale (third-person singular simple present hales, present participle haling, simple past and past participle haled)

1. To drag, pull, especially forcibly.
   • 1603, John Florio, transl.; Michel de Montaigne, chapter 6, in The Essayes, […], book II, printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:

     For I had beene vilely hurried and haled by those poore men, which had taken the paines to carry me upon their armes a long and wearysome way, and to say truth, they had all beene wearied twice or thrice over, and were faine to shift severall times.

   • 1636, John Denham, “The Destruction of Troy, an Essay on the Second Book of Virgil’s Æneis. Written in the Year 1636.”, in Poems and Translations; with the Sophy, a Tragedy, 5th edition, London: Printed for Jacob Tonson, […], published 1709, OCLC 968557217, page 38:

     A ſpacious Breach we make, and Troy’s proud Wall / Built by the Gods, by our own hands doth fall; / Thus, all their help to their own Ruin give, / Some draw with Cords, and ſome the Monſter drive / With Rolls and Leavers, thus our Works it climbs, / Big with our Fate, the Youth with Songs and Rhimes, / Some dance, ſome hale the Rope; at laſt let down / It enters with a thund’ring Noiſe the Town.

   • 1820, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Prometheus Unbound, act 1:

     The wingless, crawling hours, one among whom / As some dark Priest hales the reluctant victim / Shall drag thee, cruel King, to kiss the blood.

   • 1842, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Walking to the Mail

     By night we dragg'd her to the college tower
     From her warm bed, and up the corkscrew stair
     With hand and rope we haled the groaning sow […]

   • 1909, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], chapter I, in The Squire’s Daughter, London: Methuen, OCLC 12026604; republished New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1919, OCLC 491297620:

     He tried to persuade Cicely to stay away from the ball-room for a fourth dance. […] But she said she must go back, and when they joined the crowd again her partner was haled off with a frightened look to the royal circle, […].

   • 1992, Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety, Harper Perennial, 2007, page 262:

     They will hale the King to Paris, and have him under their eye.

• Heal, Hela, Leah, heal

From Old High German *halēn. Compare Icelandic hallur (“steep”), from Old Norse hallr (“rock, stone”), from Proto-Germanic *halluz (“rock, stone; rockface, cliff”).

hale

1. (Uri) to be steep

• “hale” in Abegg, Emil, (1911) Die Mundart von Urseren (Beiträge zur Schweizerdeutschen Grammatik. IV.) [The Dialect of Urseren], Frauenfeld, Switzerland: Huber & co., page 35.

• halde (few dialects, including Kölsch)

From Old High German *haldan, northern variant of haltan.

• IPA^(key): /ˈhaːlə/

hale (third-person singular present hält, past tense heelt or hielt, past participle jehale or gehale or gehal)

1. (most dialects) to hold

• The forms heelt; jehale are Ripuarian, whereas all given forms except jehale occur in Moselle Franconian.

• IPA^(key): /haːlə/, [ˈhæːlə]

• audio

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From Old Norse hali.

hale c (singular definite halen, plural indefinite haler)

1. tail, brush, scut
2. bottom, fanny

From late Old Norse hala, from Middle Low German halen.

hale (imperative hal, infinitive at hale, present tense haler, past tense halede, perfect tense har halet)

1. haul, heave, pull
2. drag

• hale on the Danish Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^da

• Audio

  (file)

hale

1. (archaic) singular present subjunctive of halen

hale

1. first-person singular present indicative of haler
2. third-person singular present indicative of haler
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of haler
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of haler
5. second-person singular imperative of haler

• héla

hale

1. first-person singular present subjunctive of halar
2. third-person singular present subjunctive of halar

From Proto-Polynesian *fale, from Proto-Oceanic *pale, from Proto-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian *balay, from Proto-Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian *balay, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *balay, from Proto-Austronesian *balay.

hale

1. house, building
2. institution
3. lodge
4. station, hall
5. host, hospitable person

hale

1. Alternative form of holy (sacred)

• “holi, adj. (2)” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 4 August 2018.

hale

1. first-person singular present indicative of haler
2. third-person singular present indicative of haler
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of haler
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of haler
5. second-person singular imperative of haler

From Old Norse hali.

hale m (definite singular halen, indefinite plural haler, definite plural halene)

1. a tail (of an animal, aircraft, comet etc.)

• halefinne
• haleløs, halelaus
• hestehale
• tverrhalehauk

• stjert

From late Old Norse hala, from Middle Low German halen.

hale (present tense haler, past tense halte, past participle halt)

1. to haul, heave, pull
2. to drag

• “hale” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Old Norse hali.

hale m (definite singular halen, indefinite plural halar, definite plural halane)

1. a tail (of an animal, aircraft, comet etc.)

• halefinne
• halelaus
• hestehale
• tverrhalehauk

• stjert

• “hale” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

• IPA^(key): /ˈxa.lɛ/

• audio

  (file)

hale f

1. nominative plural of hala
2. accusative plural of hala
3. vocative plural of hala

hale

1. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of halar.
2. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of halar.
3. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of halar.