View source for Hail - hale

'''Hail''' and '''hale''' form a pair of [[homophones]] which should be distinguished. Both have several meanings listed in ''[[OED]]'', of which the more important to most students are listed here. Confusingly, the (obsolete) [[adjective|adjectival]] meaning of '''hail''' is listed as being an alternative spelling of '''hale'''.
*'''Hail''' exists as [[noun]] and [[verb]], with one obsolete [[adjective]] (see above). The first is the idea of 'a greeting'. You will rarely today hear someone say "Hail!" instead of "Hi!" or "Hello!", but it was a common way of greeting someone in [[Shakespeare]]'s day. (Its [[etymology]] is that it is a Northern, and Scottish, spelling of 'whole', or 'healthy, and thus is closely related to '''hale'''.)
**It exists as both noun and verb, as well as in the original form of an [[interjection]], in the sense of 'Greeting'. In former times (and, jocularly, sometimes today) it was used much as 'Hello' is today. So Shakespeare writes that the witches '''hail'''ed Macbeth as Thane of Cawdor - i.e. they greeted him using that title. In a similar way, the noun means 'a greeting'.
**A verb derived from that meaning is used of ships speaking to each other at sea, mostly in the days before wireless when it implied 'shouting loudly'. So it is now sometimes used [[figurative]]ly in a jocular way.
**Ships, again, are said to '''hail from''' their home port. This too has been adopted figuratively, and we can say that a person ''''hails from'''' her or his birthplace, or (less usually) her or his residence.
**A 'hail-fellow-well-met' person, or manner, is one that is friendly and out-going, with a frequent implication of excessive familiarity or cheerfulness. The greeting "Hail, fellow; well met!" is occasionally to be heard in jocular academic contexts. (It is <u>never</u> to be spelled as '<s>hale</s> fellow well met'.)
*'''Hail''' is also a form of weather, consisting of frozen pellets, or small balls, of water which fall from the sky. They are hard, and more like ice than snow. Again, it can be used both as a [[non-count]] [[noun]] and a [[verb]]. We can say "Hail fell" or "it hailed." 
*'''Hale''' is basically the [[adjective]] mentioned above which means 'whole' or 'healthy'. It is now used largely in a [[cliched]] [[doublet]] ''''hale''' and hearty', meaning 'very well'. This jocular use is to be avoided in academic writing.
**An obsolete noun meant 'health'.
**A verb used at sea meant 'to '''haul'''', and can today be seen in the noun 'halyard', meaning a rope used to haul a spar, originally the '''yard''' of a square sail, or a sail up a mast in a sailing boat.

[[category:etymology]]
[[category:homophones]]
[[category:Allusions, references and quotations]]
[[category:academic culture]]
[[Category:nautical]]