heil

English

Etymology

Borrowed from German Heil. Doublet of whole, hail, and hale.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /haɪl/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪl

Verb

heil (third-person singular simple present heils, present participle heiling, simple past and past participle heiled)

1. To greet with a Sieg Heil.

Related terms

• Heil Hitler

Translations

Noun

heil (plural heils)

1. A Sieg Heil.
   • 1937, Pathfinder, volume 44, Farm Journal, Incorporated, page 15, column 1:

     Nazi “heils,” Nazi songs and Nazi swastikas are distasteful to most democracy-loving citizens.

   • 1938, Investigation of Un-American Propaganda Activities in the United States: Hearings Before a Special Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, Seventy-Fifth Congress, Third Session, on H. Res. 282, volume 1, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, page 1123:

     Health, Hitler, heils, and hatred are the “four H’s” used by United States Nazis to prevent Americanization of children whose parents are members of the German-American Bund.

   • 1938, The Advocate: America’s Jewish Journal, volume 94, page 22, column 1:

     Newsdealer Isador Gennett, the Bronx Jewish war veteran who created an international stir last October by laying a wreath at the German war memorial in Berlin to the accompaniment of Nazi “heils,” came to the defense of a fellow newsdealer, Joseph Ohmann, a German Catholic, by picketing his newsstand to prove he is not, as has been charged, a Nazi.

   • 1940, Elswyth Thane, “Here We Go Again”, in England Was an Island Once, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Company, page 227:

     “Meanwhile,” said the Evening News, “the new German-Soviet entente presents a baffling picture. We see Herr Ribbentrop, the arch enemy of Communism and the life and soul of the Anti-Comintern Pact, who once referred to Communism as ‘the most terrible of all diseases,’ presenting himself on the doorstep of a be-swastika’d Moscow while the German Embassy staff greets him with ‘heils’ and Nazi salutes and the Russian-in-the-street looks on in silent but respectful astonishment. […]”

   • 1946, The Polish Review and East European Affairs, volume 6, page 6, column 2:

     […] who simply walked out of the camp dressed as German guards, duplicating Nazi heils, the goosestep and other mannerisms.

   • 1948, Louis P[aul] Lochner, transl., The Goebbels Diaries, New York, N.Y.: Charter, page 15:

     Later I drove to the meeting and talked for two hours. Tremendous applause. Then heils and hand-clapping.

   • 1979, Gene Brown, editor, The New York Times Encyclopedia of Sports: Track and Field, Arno Press, →ISBN, page 76:

     While frantic “heils” burst forth […]

   • 1987, Thomas J. Harris, Courtroom’s Finest Hour in American Cinema, Metuchen, N.J., London: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., →ISBN, page 132:

     Occasionally, however, the results are somewhat questionable: the four-minute overture-⁠-comprised of slowly rising Nazi "heils"-⁠-which precedes the credits, for example, seems little more than an irritating delay; it is usually deleted when the film is shown on television.

   • 1991, Margot Abbott, The Last Innocent Hour, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, →ISBN, page 145:

     When they were finished, they raised their arms in the salute Hider stole from Mussolini, and thundered their heils to the heavens.

   • 1993, John Sack, An Eye for an Eye: The Untold Story of Jewish Revenge Against Germans in 1945, BasicBooks, →ISBN, page 103:

     By now, the SS, Storm Section, Hitler Youth and Nazi suspects were like the crowd at a Hitler rally. Their mouths were a row of red circles, as open as megaphone ends. To look at, the men could be singing, marching, stomping over the flopping remains of Shlomo’s father, mother, brothers, giving their heils, and Shlomo now hated them.

   • 2006, Ronald Weber, “The Dear Paris Herald”, in News of Paris: American Journalists in the City of Light Between the Wars, Chicago, Ill.: Ivan R. Dee, →ISBN, page 71:

     Three days later, in the Mailbag of May 14, Pauline Avery Crawford made her decision: / Sing a song of sick pacts, / A pocket full of lies, / War and twenty blackmails / Baked by the spies; / When the war was opened / The spies began their heils / Until a Yankee Eagle flew / Across three thousand miles.

   • 2013, Carrie Vaughn, “Unternehmen Werwolf”, in Paula Guran, editor, Halloween: Magic, Mystery, and the Macabre, Prime Books, →ISBN, page 90:

     He wasn’t a boy, a feckless common soldier, he was a wolf. Hitler’s werewolves, the colonel called them, and they saluted with their heils and expected victory.

Derived terms

• Daily Heil

Anagrams

• Hile, Ihle, Lehi, elhi, heli-, hile

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch heil, from Old Dutch heil.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɦɛi̯l/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: heil
• Rhymes: -ɛi̯l

Noun

heil n (uncountable)

1. prosperity
2. salvation

Derived terms

Anagrams

• hiel

Finnish

Pronoun

heil

1. (colloquial) Pronunciation spelling of heillä.

   Heil Hitler, meil Kosola. ― They have Hitler, we have Kosola.

German

Alternative forms

• heile (chiefly colloquial; rarely in writing)

Etymology

From Middle High German heil, from Old High German heil, from Proto-West Germanic *hail, from Proto-Germanic *hailaz, from Proto-Indo-European *kéh₂ilos (“healthy, whole”).

In older High German only used of the human body and soul; the modern use also of things is based on Middle Low German hêl, from Old Saxon hēl. The more general sense “whole, entire” did not establish itself in standard German (except in fixed combinations like heilfroh). Cognate with Dutch heel, Low German heel, heil, English whole, hale, Danish hel.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /haɪ̯l/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪ̯l

Adjective

heil (strong nominative masculine singular heiler, comparative heiler, superlative am heilsten)

1. whole; intact; unhurt; safe

   Synonym: unversehrt

   Gut, dass du heil wieder zurück bist. ― I’m glad you’re back safe.

   Die Tasse ist noch heil. ― The cup is still intact.

2. (in combination with certain nouns) sheltered; innocent; ideal

   heile Kindheit ― innocent childhood

   heile Welt ― ideal world

Declension

Derived terms

• heilen
• heile Welt
• heilfroh
• Heilung

Related terms

• Heil

Further reading

• “heil” in Duden online
• “heil” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

Icelandic

Adjective

heil (masculine heill, feminine heil, neuter heilt)

1. (indefinite) feminine singular nominative of heill
2. (indefinite) neuter plural nominative of heill
3. (indefinite) neuter plural accusative of heill

Ingrian

Pronunciation

• (Ala-Laukaa) IPA^(key): /ˈhei̯lːæ/,
• (Soikkola) IPA^(key): /ˈhei̯l/,
• Rhymes: -ei̯lː, -ei̯l
• Hyphenation: heil
• Homophone: heille

Pronoun

heil

1. adessive of höö

References

• V. I. Junus (1936) Iƶoran Keelen Grammatikka‎, Leningrad: Riikin Ucebno-pedagogiceskoi Izdateljstva, page 98

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old Norse heill, from Proto-Germanic *hailaz (“whole; entire; healthy”). Doublet of hole.

Adjective

heil

1. healthy, sound

Alternative forms

• heyl, hail, hayl; hæil (Early Middle English); whayle (Late Middle English)

References

• “heil, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Noun

heil (uncountable)

1. health, welfare

Alternative forms

• heyl, hail, hayl

References

• “heil, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Interjection

heil

1. hail!

Alternative forms

• heyl

References

• “heil, interj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Descendants

• English: hail
• Scots: hail

Etymology 2

Noun

heil

1. Alternative form of hele (“heel”)

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Old Norse heill.

Adjective

heil (neuter singular heilt, definite singular and plural heile)

1. alternative form of hel

Derived terms

See also terms derived from hel

References

• “heil” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Old Norse heill, from Proto-Germanic *hailaz, from Proto-Indo-European *kéh₂ilos (“healthy, whole”). Akin to English whole.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /hɛɪːl/

Adjective

heil (neuter heilt, definite singular and plural heile, comparative heilare, indefinite superlative heilast, definite superlative heilaste)

1. whole, not in pieces
2. healthy; uninjured

Declension

Derived terms

Related terms

• heila, heile (verb)
• heilag

Interjection

heil

1. hail

Verb

heil

1. imperative of heile

References

• “heil” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Anagrams

• hile

Old Dutch

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *hail, from Proto-Germanic *hailaz.

Adjective

heil

1. whole, healthy

References

• Altniederfränkischer Psalm 3

Old High German

Etymology 1

From Proto-West Germanic *hail, from Proto-Germanic *hailaz, whence also Old Saxon hēl, Old English hāl, Old Norse heill, Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌹𐌻𐍃 (hails), Vandalic eils. Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kéh₂ilos (“healthy, whole”).

Adjective

heil

1. whole

Descendants

• Middle High German: heil
  • German: heil

Etymology 2

From Proto-Germanic *hailą, whence also Old English hæl, Old Norse heill.

Noun

heil n

1. luck

Descendants

• German: Heil

Old Norse

Adjective

heil

1. feminine singular indefinite nominative of heill (“whole”)
2. neuter plural indefinite nominative/accusative of heill (“whole”)

Veps

Pronoun

heil

1. adessive of hö