Word Confusion: Hail versus Hale

Posted March 10, 2014 by Kathy Davie in Author Resources, Self-Editing, Word Confusions, Writing

Revised as of
6 July 2023

I was reading a book . . . yeah, yeah, big surprise *eye roll as I laugh* when I ran across a questionable use of hale, as in she haled the man, and it jerked me out of the story. No, she wasn’t pulling the man anywhere, so the author must have meant hail, hmmm . . .

I re-read that sentence a few times, substituting hail for hale, and it worked better, for me anyway. Then I had to go back a few paragraphs to fall back into the words the writer wanted me to be paying attention to. Ya know, the ones that tell the story?

Still, the damage was done. I wasn’t in the story anymore. Instead I was leery, wondering when the author would hale me out again.

It can cause a to-do, using the wrong words.

Word Confusions . . .

. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.

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Hail	Hale
Hail! photographed by Trevor Manteranch, Ballantine, USA, is under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. — Not a hail storm I’d want to be out in!	Runners by Margan Zajdowicz, via a FreeImages license. — Runners are usually in hale condition. Me? I’d be haling myself along.
Part of Grammar:
Exclamation ¹; Noun ², ³; Verb ³, intransitive ² & transitive Plural for noun: hails Gerund: hailing Third person present verb: hails Past tense or past participle: hailed Present participle: hailing	Adjective ¹; Verb, transitive ² Third person present verb: hales Past tense or past participle: haled Present participle: haling
Exclamation: [Archaic] Used as a salutation ¹ Used to express acclamation Noun: Pellets of frozen rain that fall in showers from cumulonimbus clouds ² [In singular noun] A large number of objects hurled forcefully through the air A shout or call used to attract attention ³ Verb, intransitive: Hail falls ² [With adverbial of direction; of a large number of objects] Fall or be hurled forcefully [hail from] To be or have been native to or a resident of ³ To call out To call a greeting to a passing ship Verb, transitive: Call out to someone to attract attention ³ Signal an approaching taxicab to stop Acclaim enthusiastically as being a specified thing Salute, greet Greet as an esteemed person	Adjective: [Of a person, especially an elderly one] Strong and healthy ¹ Free from defect, disease, or infirmity Sound Retaining exceptional health and vigor Verb, transitive: [Archaic] Drag or draw forcibly ² Drag into a place Drag to a place Drag before (a magistrate) Haul, pull Compel to go
Examples:
Exclamation: All hail the King! Hail and well met, my friend. Hail the conquering hero. Noun: The hail is really coming down. They fell under a hail of bullets. It was a veritable hail of abuse. Verb, intransitive: It’s really hailing out there! It hails. It is hailing. It hailed so hard we had to stop. Missiles and bombs hail down from the sky. He hails from Pittsburgh. Verb, transitive: The crew hailed a fishing boat. She raised her hand to hail a cab. He has been hailed as the new James Dean.	Adjective: For a sixty-year-old man, he’s very hale and hearty. I feel hale in mind and body. She’s quite hale and hearty for her age. Verb, transitive: He haled an old man out of the audience. The fishermen haled the huge net onto the deck of the ship. “In short order the human rights campaign was haled before a high court of indignation” – Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
Derivatives:
Noun: hailer, hailstone, hailstorm	Adjective: healer, halest, halesome Noun: haleness, haler, haling
History of the Word:
Its first known use was in the 13th century. Its origins are the same as ³. Its first known use was before the 12th century. Old English nouns hagol or hægl while hagalian, the verb, is of Germanic origin and akin to the Old High German hagal, meaning hail and related to the Dutch hagel and the German Hagel. Its first known use was before the 12th century. Middle English from the obsolete adjective hail, meaning healthy which occurs in greetings and toasts, such as wæs hæil (see wassail, which is from the Old Norse heill and related to hale and whole.	Its first known use was before the 12th century. An Old English variant of hāl, meaning whole. Its first known use was in the 13th century. Middle English from the Old French haler or aler which is from the Old Norse hala.

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C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!

Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.

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