hail
Meanings
- Balls or pieces of ice falling as precipitation, often in connection with a thunderstorm.
- An occurrence of this type of precipitation; a hailstorm.
- A rapid, intense barrage by a large number of projectiles or other objects.
- To have hailstones fall from the sky.
- To send or release hail.
- To pour down in rapid succession.
- Healthy, whole, safe.
- To greet; give salutation to; salute.
- To name; to designate; to call.
- To call out loudly in order to gain the attention of.
- To indicate, from a designated stop or otherwise, to the driver of a public transport vehicle that one wishes to board and travel on the vehicle, usually using hand signals such as waving.
- To signal in order to initiate communication with.
- In the game of uppies and downies, to throw (the ball) repeatedly up and down at the goal location, in order to score a point.
- to originate (from), be native (to) or be based (in)
- An exclamation of respectful or reverent salutation, or, occasionally, of familiar greeting.
- A province of Saudi Arabia
- A city in Hail, Saudi Arabia
- A surname.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
From Middle English hayle, haile, hail, hawel, haghil, haȝel, from Old English hæġl, hæġel, hagol (“hail”), from Proto-West Germanic *hagl, from Proto-Germanic *haglaz, of uncertain origin. Either from Proto-Indo-European *kagʰlos (“pebble”); or alternatively from *ḱoḱló-, a reduplication of *ḱel- (“cold”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Hail (“hail”), West Frisian heil (“hail”), Low German Hagel (“hail”), German Hagel (“hail”), Dutch and Swedish hagel (“hail”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Icelandic hagl (“hail”). Compare also Old Norse héla (“frost”). Doublet of haglaz, if the second etymology (“cold”) is correct. Root-cognates outside of Germanic include Ancient Greek κάχληξ (kákhlēx, “pebble”), or alternatively Sanskrit शिशिर (śíśira, “cool, cold”), possibly also Lithuanian šešėlis (“shade, shadow”), depending on the etymology.