Online Etymology Dictionary

hake (n.): type of sea fish, late 13c., probably from Old English haca "a hook, door-fastening" (related to hacod "pike" the fish), or from cognate Old Norse haki "hook;" in either case the fish so called from the shape of its jaw; both from Proto-Germanic *hakan (cognate with Dutch hake "hook"), from PIE root *keg- "hook, tooth" (see hook (n.)).
Hakeem: also Hakim, masculine proper name, from Arabic hakim "wise," as a noun "physician; philosopher; governor," from stem of hakuma "he was wise;" whence also hakam "judge," hikmah "wisdom, science."
Hakenkreuz (n.): 1931, proper German name for the Nazi swastika (q.v.), literally "hook-cross," from Old High German hako "hook," from Proto-Germanic *hoka-, from PIE *keg- "hook, tooth" (see hook (n.)).
halal (adj.): 1858, Arabic, literally "lawful." Halal food has been prepared in a manner prescribed by Islamic law.
halberd (n.): medieval weapon (a broad blade with sharp edges, ending in a point and mounted on a long handle), late 15c., from Middle French hallebarde (earlier alabarde, 15c.), from Middle High German halmbarte "broad-axe with handle," from halm "handle" (see helm) + barte "hatchet," possibly from Proto-Germanic *bardoz "beard," also "hatchet, broadax." Alternative etymology [Kluge, Darmesteter] traces first element to helm "helmet," making the weapon an axe for smashing helmets. In 15c.-16c. especially the arm of foot-soldiers.
halcyon (adj.): "calm, quiet, peaceful," 1540s, in halcyon dayes (translating Latin alcyonei dies, Greek alkyonides hemerai), 14 days of calm weather at the winter solstice, when a mythical bird (also identified with the kingfisher) was said to breed in a nest floating on calm seas. The name of this fabulous bird is attested in Middle English as alcioun (late 14c.). The name is from Latin halcyon, alcyon, from Greek halkyon, variant (perhaps a misspelling) of alkyon "kingfisher," a word of unknown origin. The explanation that this is from hals "sea; salt" (see halo-) + kyon "conceiving," present participle of kyein "to conceive," literally "to swell" (see cumulus) probably is ancient folk-etymology to explain a loan-word from a non-Indo-European language. Identified in mythology with Halcyone, daughter of Aeolus, who when widowed threw herself into the sea and became a kingfisher.
hale (adj.): "in good health, robust," Old English hal "healthy, sound, safe; entire; uninjured; genuine, straightforward" (see health). The Scottish and northern English form of whole and with a more etymological spelling. It later acquired a literary sense of "free from infirmity" (1734), especially in reference to the aged. Related: Haleness.
hale (v.): c. 1200, "drag, pull," in Middle English used of arrows, bowstrings, reins, swords, anchors, etc., from Old French haler "to pull, haul, tow, tug" (12c.), from Frankish *halon or Old Dutch halen or some other Germanic source, from Proto-Germanic *halon "to call," from PIE *kele- (2) "to shout" (see claim (v.)). Figurative sense of "to draw (someone) from one condition to another" is late 14c. Related: Haled; haling.
half: Old English half, halb (Mercian), healf (W. Saxon) "side, part," not necessarily of equal division (original sense preserved in behalf), from Proto-Germanic *halbaz "something divided" (source also of Old Saxon halba, Old Norse halfr, Old Frisian, Middle Dutch half, German halb, Gothic halbs "half"), perhaps from PIE (s)kel- (1) "to cut" (see shell (n.)). Noun, adjective, and adverb all were in Old English.

Used also in Old English phrases, as in modern German, to mean "one half unit less than," for example þridda healf "two and a half," literally "half third." The construction in two and a half, etc., is first recorded c. 1200. Of time, in half past ten, etc., first attested 1750; in Scottish, the half often is prefixed to the following hour (as in German, halb elf = "ten thirty"). To go off half-cocked in the figurative sense "speak or act too hastily" (1833) is in allusion to firearms going off prematurely; half-cocked in a literal sense "with the cock lifted to the first catch, at which position the trigger does not act" is recorded by 1750. In 1770 it was noted as a synonym for "drunk."
half seas over (adj.): slang for "drunk," 1736, sometimes said to be from notion of a ship heavy-laden and so low in the water that small waves (half seas) wash over the deck. This suits the sense, but the phrase is not recorded in this alleged literal sense. Half seas over "halfway across the sea" is recorded from 1550s, however, and it was given a figurative extension to "halfway through a matter" by 1690s. What drunkenness is halfway to is not clear.
half-: in genealogical combinations, "sharing one parent," Middle English, from half.
half-and-half (n.): 1756 as "ale and porter;" as a mixture of milk and cream, by 1946.
half-assed (adj.): "ineffectual," 1932; "Dictionary of American Slang" suggests it is perhaps a humorous mispronunciation of haphazard. Compare half-hearted.
half-baked (adj.): 1620s as "underdone;" colloquial figurative sense of "silly, immature" is from 1855; see half + bake (v.).
half-blood (n.): "person of mixed race," 1826; see half + blood (n.). As an adjective, "born of one parent the same and one different," from 1550s. Half-blooded as an adjective in this sense is from c. 1600.
half-breed (n.): "person of mixed race," 1760; as an adjective by 1762; from half + breed (n.).
half-brother (n.): early 14c., from half- + brother.
half-caste (adj.): 1789, Anglo-Indian, in reference to the offspring of a European father and an Asian mother, from half + caste.
half-cent (n.): U.S. copper coin minted from 1793 to 1857, established and named in the 1786 resolution for a new monetary system; see half + cent.
half-dime (n.): U.S. silver coin minted from 1792 to 1873; originally half-disme; later form by 1800; from half + dime.
half-eagle (n.): U.S. $5 gold coin minted from 1795 to 1929, authorized in the 1786 resolution for a new monetary system; see half + eagle in the coinage sense.
half-hearted (adj.): also halfhearted, "showing little enthusiasm," early 15c.; see half + hearted. Related: halfheartedly; halfheartedness. English in 17c. also had half-headed "stupid."
half-hour (n.): "period of thirty minutes," early 15c., from half + hour. Related: Half-hourly.
half-life (n.): also halflife, half life, 1864, "unsatisfactory way of living," from half + life; the sense in physics, "amount of time it takes half a given amount of radioactivity to decay" is first attested 1907.
half-mast: 1620s, from half + mast (n.1).
half-measure (n.): "incomplete effort," 1798, from half + measure (n.).
half-moon (n.): 1520s; from half + moon (n.).
half-price (n.): 1720, from half + price (n.).
half-shirt (n.): 1660s, "shirt front," from half + shirt. In modern use, "shirt cropped high at the waist," 2000.
half-sister (n.): c. 1200, from half- + sister.
half-time (n.): also halftime, half time, indicating "half of the time," 1640s, from half + time (n.). Tempo sense is by 1880. In football, from 1867.
half-track (n.): also halftrack, type of military vehicle with traction-chains as well as wheels, 1927, from half + track (n.).
half-truth (n.): 1650s, from half + truth.
half-wit (n.): "simpleton" (one lacking all his wits), 1755, from half + wit (n.). Earlier "a would-be wit whose abilities are mediocre" (1670s).
Half-wits are fleas; so little and so light,
We scarce could know they live, but that they bite.
[Dryden, "All for Love"]
Phrase out of half wit "half out of one's mind" was in Middle English (late 14c.). Half-witted "lacking common sense" is from 1640s.
halfling (n.): "one not fully grown," 1794, from half + -ling.
halfpenny (n.): mid-13c. (though implied in Old English healfpenigwurð "halfpenny-worth"); see half + penny.
halfway (adv.): also half-way, Old English healfweg; see half + way (n.). Halfway house originally was a common name for inns midway between cities or stages.
hali-: word-forming element meaning "salt, a lump of salt," from Greek hali-, comb. form of hals (genitive halos) "a lump of salt, salt generally," and in Homer, "the sea," from PIE *sal- (1) "salt" (see salt (n.)).
halibut (n.): large flatfish, early 15c., perhaps from hali "holy" (see holy) + butte "flatfish;" supposedly so called from its being eaten on holy days (compare cognate Dutch heilbot, Low German heilbutt, Swedish helgeflundra, Danish helleflynder). For second element see butt (n.4).
halide (n.): a compound of a halogen and a metal radical, 1844, from Swedish (Berzelius, 1825), from halo- + chemical suffix -ide.
halieutic (adj.): "pertaining to fishing," 1854, from Latin halieuticus, from Greek halieutikos "pertaining to fishing," from halieuein "to fish," from hals "the sea," literally "salt" (see hali-). Halieutics "writing on the art of fishing" is from 1640s (Latin Halieutica was the title of a poem on fishing by Ovid).
Halifax: place in West Yorkshire, late 11c., from Old English halh "secluded spot, nook of land" (cognate with Old English holh "hole, cavity") + feax "rough grass," literally "hair." In popular expressions coupled with Hull and Hell since at least 1620s. "In the 16th cent. the name was wrongly interpreted as OE halig-feax, 'holy hair', and a story invented of a maiden killed by a lustful priest whose advances she refused." [Victor Watts, "English Place-Names"]
halite (n.): "rock-salt, natural sodium chloride," 1868, coined as Modern Latin halites in 1847 by German mineralogist Ernst Friedrich Glocker (1793-1858), from Greek hals "salt" (see halo-) + chemical noun suffix -ite (2).
halitosis (n.): "bad breath," 1874, coined in Modern Latin from Latin halitus "breath, exhalation, steam, vapor" (which is related to halare "to breathe, emit vapor") + Greek-based noun suffix -osis.
hall (n.): Old English heall "spacious roofed residence, house; temple; law-court," any large place covered by a roof, from Proto-Germanic *hallo "covered place, hall" (source also of Old Saxon, Old High German halla, German halle, Dutch hal, Old Norse höll "hall;" Old English hell, Gothic halja "hell"), from PIE root *kel- (2) "to hide, cover, conceal" (see cell).

Sense of "passageway in a building" evolved 17c., from the time when the doors to private rooms opened onto the large public room of the house. Older sense preserved in town hall, music hall, etc., in use of the word in Britain and Southern U.S. for "manor house," also "main building of a college" (late 14c.). French halle, Italian alla are from Middle High German. Hall of fame attested by 1786 as an abstract concept; in sporting sense first attested 1901, in reference to Columbia College; the Baseball Hall of Fame opened in 1939. Related: Hall-of-famer.
hallelujah: also halleluiah, 1530s, from Late Latin hallelujah, alleluia, from Greek allelouia, from Hebrew hallalu-yah "praise ye Jehovah," from hallalu, plural imperative of hallel "to praise" also "song of praise," from hillel "he praised," of imitative origin, with primary sense being "to trill." Second element is yah, shortened form of Yahweh, name of God. Earlier English form alleluia (12c.) is from Old French alleluie.
hallmark (n.): 1721, official stamp of purity in gold and silver articles, from Goldsmiths' Hall in London, site of the assay office; see hall + mark (n.1). General sense of "mark of quality" first recorded 1864. As a verb from 1773.
hallo (interj.): shout to call attention, 1781, earlier hollo, holla (see hello). "Such forms, being mere syllables to call attention, are freely varied for sonorous effect" [Century Dictionary]. Old English had ea la. Halow as a shipman's cry to incite effort is from mid-15c.; Halloo as a verb, "to pursue with shouts, to shout in the chase," is from late 14c. Compare also harou, cry of distress, late 13c., from French.
halloo (v.): see hallo.
hallow (v.): Old English halgian "to make holy, sanctify; to honor as holy, consecrate, ordain," related to halig "holy," from Proto-Germanic *hailagon (source also of Old Saxon helagon, Middle Dutch heligen, Old Norse helga), from PIE root *kailo- "whole, uninjured, of good omen" (see health). Used in Christian translations to render Latin sanctificare. Related: Hallowed; hallowing.