health
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English
Etymology 1
Inherited from Middle English helthe, from Old English hǣlþ, from Proto-West Germanic *hailiþu, from Proto-Germanic *hailiþō, from Proto-Germanic *hailaz (“whole, hale”). Cognate with Old High German heilida. Analyzable as whole + -th, hale + -th, or heal + -th. More at heal. Doublet of wholth.
Alternative forms
Pronunciation
Noun
health (usually uncountable, plural healths)
- The state of being free from physical or psychological disease, illness, or malfunction; wellness.
- Her mental health is really affected by stressful environments.
- 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter IV, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
- Then he commenced to talk, really talk. and inside of two flaps of a herring's fin he had me mesmerized, like Eben Holt's boy at the town hall show. He talked about the ills of humanity, and the glories of health and Nature and service and land knows what all.
- A state of well-being or balance, often physical but sometimes also mental and social; the overall level of function of an organism from the cellular (micro) level to the social (macro) level.
- The directors are concerned about the financial health of the project.
- Physical condition.
- (obsolete) Cure, remedy.
- (countable) A toast to prosperity.
- 2002, Joshua Scodel, Excess and the Mean in Early Modern English Literature, page 213:
- Strikingly, however, Waller does not deny but rather revels in the claim that healths lead to excessive drinking
- (video games) The amount of damage an in-game object can withstand before it is destroyed.
- The enemies on this level have a lot of health.
Derived terms
- allied health
- bill of health
- digital health
- e-health
- health activation
- health and fitness age
- health and safety
- health bar
- health behavior
- health-care
- healthcare, health care
- health center
- health centre
- health club
- health code
- health-conscious
- health farm
- health faucet
- health food
- health fund
- health hazard
- healthie
- healthiness
- health informatics
- health insurance
- healthism
- healthist
- health is your first wealth
- healthless
- healthlike
- health nut
- health physicist
- health physics
- health point
- health product
- health resort
- health science
- health service
- healthsome
- health spa
- health stamp
- health tourism
- health visitor
- health warning
- health worker
- healthy
- ill health
- ill-health
- in health
- in sickness and in health
- in the pink of health
- life, prosperity, health
- mental health
- Personal Social Health Education
- public health
- reproductive health
- telebehavioral health
- telemental health
- to your health
- unhealth
- Vale of Health
- World Health Organization
Related terms
Translations
state of being free of physical or psychological disease, illness, or malfunction
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physical condition
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overall level of function of an organism
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(video games) amount of damage an in-game object can withstand
Etymology 2
From Middle English heleð (“man, hero, fighter”), from Old English hæleþ (“man, hero, fighter”), from Proto-West Germanic *haliþ, from Proto-Germanic *haliþaz (“man, hero”). Cognate with West Frisian held (“hero”), Dutch held (“hero”), German Held (“hero”), Norwegian Nynorsk hauld (“freeman”).
Alternative forms
Noun
health (plural healths)
- (obsolete) A warrior; hero; man.
- 1612, Michael Drayton, “(please specify the chapter)”, in [John Selden], editor, Poly-Olbion. Or A Chorographicall Description of Tracts, Riuers, Mountaines, Forests, and Other Parts of this Renowned Isle of Great Britaine, , London: H L for Mathew Lownes; I. Browne; I. Helme; I. Busbie, published 1613, →OCLC:
- They, under false pretence of amity and cheer, the British peers invite, the German healths to view.
References
- “health”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “health”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.