Holy Healthy Halloween
Holy, healthy, and Halloween are part of a large family of words, all of which ultimately descend from the Proto-Germanic *hailaz âhealthy, whole, complete, soundâ. The direct descendent of that root is the Modern English âwholeâ. The w in the spelling whole has no etymological basis, and appears to have been added to distinguish it from the unrelated noun hole. In northern dialects, it became hale, meaning âhealthy, soundâ, which is now dated. In Old Norse, this root became heill, which was borrowed into English as hail in the sense of âgreetingâ, from the practice of wishing good health as a greeting (compare the Latin salve, used as a greeting, literally meaning âbe healthy!â or âbe well!â)
A verb *hailijanÄ , was derived from this adjective, with the meaning âmake whole, make healthyâ, which became the Modern English verb heal. And a noun form *hailiĂŸĆ was also formed from that root, meaning âwholenessâ or âhealthâ. This is the ancestor of the Modern English health, and from that was formed the adjective healthy
Another suffix, *-gaz, âbeing, having, or doing Xâ was used to form the word *hailagaz, âholy, sacredâ, which became Modern English holy. A noun derived from this adjective, *hailagĂŽ (âholy person or thingâ), became the now-obsolete noun hallow, âa saintâ, which is preserved in the older name All Hallowsâ Day for the festival more commonly known today as All Saintsâ Day on November 1. The night before All Hallowsâ Day was All Hallowsâ Even (Even in this context being an alternative form of Evening, or Eve), which came to be contracted to Halloween. A verb *hailagĆnÄ derived from this source became the Modern verb hallow, the two forms eventually merging phonetically










