healdan

• haldan — Anglian

From Proto-West Germanic *haldan, from Proto-Germanic *haldaną (“to watch, look after”).

Cognate with Old Frisian halda (West Frisian hâlde), Old Saxon haldan (Low German holen), Old Dutch haldan (Dutch houden), Old High German haltan (German halten), Old Norse halda (Swedish hålla, Danish holde), Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌻𐌳𐌰𐌽 (haldan).

• IPA^(key): /ˈxæ͜ɑl.dɑn/,

healdan (West Saxon)

1. to keep watch over (cattle etc.)
   • Old English Heptateuch, Genesis 4:9

     ...sċeolde iċ mīnne broþor healdon?

     ...should I watch over my brother?

2. to hold fast, to grasp
3. to contain
4. to possess
   • c. 992, Ælfric, "Sermon on the Nativiity of Our Lord"

     Ðyllīce word María hēold ārǣfniġende on hire heortan.

     Such words Mary held, pondering them in her heart.

5. to keep, hold, preserve something in a specific position or state
   • 10th century, Exeter Book Riddle 8‎:

     Iċ… hlūde ċirme, healde mīne wīsan, hlēoþre ne mīþe,…

     I… loudly cry out, hold my tone, don't hide a sound,…

6. to keep to, maintain, observe a custom or habit
7. (intransitive) to maintain one’s position against an enemy

• Middle English: holden, halden, halde, halt
  • English: hold
  • Geordie English: ha'd
  • Scots: hald, hauld, haud, had
  • Yola: houle

• Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller (1898) “healdan”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.