héler

From Middle French heiler (“to hail”), from Middle English heilen (“to greet, call to, salute”), from hail, heil (“health”), from Old Norse heill (“health”), from Proto-Germanic *hailą (“health”), from *hailaz (“whole, hale, safe”), from Proto-Indo-European *kéh₂ilos (“safe, unharmed”). Cognate with Old English hǣl, hǣlu (“health, safety”). More at whole.

• ^{(aspirated h)} IPA^(key): /e.le/

• Audio:

  (file)

héler

1. to hail (call out loudly)
   • 2015 January, Virginie Despentes, Vernon Subutex, volume 1, Éditions Grasset, →ISBN, page 25:

     Il avait vu un pote, de loin, devant la salle, et l’avait hélé, content de montrer la fille avec qui il était, une brune à frange jean cigarette talons aiguilles, comme la capitale en produisait en série, au début du millénaire.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

This verb is conjugated like céder. It is a regular -er verb, except that its last stem vowel alternates between /e/ (written 'é') and /ɛ/ (written 'è'), with the latter being used before mute 'e'. One special case is the future stem, used in the future and the conditional. Before 1990, the future stem of such verbs was written héler-, reflecting the historic pronunciation /e/. In 1990, the French Academy recommended that it be written hèler-, reflecting the now common pronunciation /ɛ/, thereby making this distinction consistent throughout the conjugation (and also matching in this regard the conjugations of verbs like lever and jeter). Both spellings are in use today, and both are therefore given here.

• Haitian Creole: rele

• “héler”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.
• “héler” in Émile Littré, Dictionnaire de la langue française, 1872–1877.