Wiktionary

halt

See also: Halt, hält, and hált

English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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From Middle English halten, from Old English healtian (“to be lame, walk with a limp”), from Proto-Germanic *haltōną, related to *haltaz. English usage in the sense of 'make a halt' is from the noun. Cognate with North Frisian halte, Swedish halta.

Verb

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halt (third-person singular simple present halts, present participle halting, simple past and past participle halted) (obsolete)

  1. (intransitive) To limp; move with a limping gait.
  2. (intransitive) To stand in doubt whether to proceed, or what to do; hesitate; be uncertain; linger; delay; mammer.
  3. (intransitive) To be lame, faulty, or defective, as in connection with ideas, or in measure, or in versification.
  4. To waver.
  5. To falter.
Translations
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limp (walk lamely) — see limp

Etymology 2

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From Middle French halt, from early modern German halt (“stop!”), imperative of halten (“to hold, to stop”). More at hold.

Verb

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halt (third-person singular simple present halts, present participle halting, simple past and past participle halted)

  1. (intransitive) To stop marching.
  2. (intransitive) To stop either temporarily or permanently.
    • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter I, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
      And it was while all were passionately intent upon the pleasing and snake-like progress of their uncle that a young girl in furs, ascending the stairs two at a time, peeped perfunctorily into the nursery as she passed the hallway—and halted amazed.
  3. (transitive) To bring to a stop.
  4. (transitive) To cause to discontinue.
    The contract negotiations halted operations for at least a week.
Synonyms
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Translations
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Noun

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halt (plural halts)

  1. A cessation, either temporary or permanent.
    The contract negotiations put a halt to operations.
    • 1702–1704, Edward [Hyde, 1st] Earl of Clarendon, “(please specify |book=I to XVI)”, in The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, Begun in the Year 1641. […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed at the Theater, published 1707, →OCLC:
      Without any halt they marched.
    • 1962 April, R. K. Evans, “The Acceptance Testing of Diesel Locomotives”, in Modern Railways, page 268:
      Because most diesel failures can be traced to electrical faults, minor in themselves but often difficult to pin-point, any unscheduled halt during a trial run is often the signal for the frenzied unfolding of wiring diagrams and the appearance of an impressive array of voltmeters and circuit testers.
  2. (rail transport) A minor railway station (usually unstaffed) in the United Kingdom.
    The halt itself never achieved much importance, even with workers coming to and from the adjacent works.
    • 1961 November, H. G. Ellison, P. G. Barlow, “Journey through France: Part One”, in Trains Illustrated, page 668:
      On once more we swung, bumping uneasily along in the antique narrow-gauge coach, with gloomy woods and gathering night outside, shouts and songs (and quacks) inside—this was not at all the sort of train ordained by the logical strategists in Paris—then grinding to a stop at a mysterious halt which was no more than a nameboard in the pinewoods, without even a footpath leading to it, but nevertheless with a solitary passenger stolidly waiting.
Synonyms
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Derived terms
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Translations
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Etymology 3

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From Middle English halt, from Old English healt, from Proto-West Germanic *halt, from Proto-Germanic *haltaz (“halt, lame”), from Proto-Indo-European *kol-d-, from Proto-Indo-European *kel- (“to beat, strike, cut, slash”). Cognate with Danish halt, Swedish halt.

Adjective

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halt (comparative more halt, superlative most halt)

  1. (archaic) Lame, limping.

Noun

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halt (plural halts)

  1. (dated) Lameness; a limp.

Etymology 4

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Borrowed from French halte.

Noun

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halt (plural halts)

  1. (British, Ireland) A small railroad station, usually unstaffed or with very few staff, and with few or no facilities.
Derived terms
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Anagrams

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Alemannic German

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Etymology

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From Middle High German halt. Cognate with German halt (adverb).

Pronunciation

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Adverb

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halt

  1. so, just, simply
    • 1978, Rolf Lyssy & Christa Maerker, Die Schweizermacher, (transcript):
      Chömmer halt e chli früner. Schadet a nüt.
      So we'll arrive a little earlier. Won't do any harm.

Czech

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Pronunciation

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Interjection

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halt

  1. Alternative form of holt

Danish

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Etymology

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From Old Norse haltr

Adjective

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halt

  1. lame

East Central German

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Etymology

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Compare German halt.

Adjective

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halt

  1. (Erzgebirgisch) so, just, simply
    Sis halt su.
    It's just like that.

Further reading

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  • 2020 June 11, Hendrik Heidler, Hendrik Heidler's 400 Seiten: Echtes Erzgebirgisch: Wuu de Hasen Hoosn haaßn un de Hosen Huusn do sei mir drhamm: Das Original Wörterbuch: Ratgeber und Fundgrube der erzgebirgischen Mund- und Lebensart: Erzgebirgisch – Deutsch / Deutsch – Erzgebirgisch‎[2], 3. geänderte Auflage edition, Norderstedt: BoD – Books on Demand, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 57:

German

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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From the verb halten (“to hold; to stop”).

Verb

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halt

  1. singular imperative of halten

Interjection

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halt!

  1. stop!, wait!
Descendants
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  • → Dutch: halt
  • → Italian: alt
  • → Spanish: alto
  • → Portuguese: alto
  • → Swedish: halt
  • → Middle French: halt

Etymology 2

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From Middle High German halt, pertaining to Old High German halto (“soon, fast”). Ultimately from Proto-Germanic *haldiz, an adverbial comparative like *batiz.

Adverb

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halt

  1. (colloquial, modal particle) Indicating that something is generally known, or cannot be changed, or the like; often untranslatable; so, just, simply, indeed, well
    Synonym: eben
    Er ist halt ein Idiot. ― Well, he’s an idiot.
    Dann müssen wir halt härter arbeiten.
    Then we’ll just have to work harder.
Usage notes
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  • The word is originally southern German and is still considered so by some contemporary dictionaries. It has, however, become common throughout the language area during the past decades.
Descendants
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See also
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Further reading

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  • “halt” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

Hungarian

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Etymology

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hal (“to die”) +‎ -t (past-tense and past-participle suffix)

Pronunciation

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Verb

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halt

  1. third-person singular indicative past indefinite of hal

Usage notes

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This form normally occurs when a verbal prefix is separated from the verb:

Participle

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halt

  1. past participle of hal

Declension

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Inflection (stem in -a-, back harmony)
singular plural
nominative halt haltak
accusative haltat haltakat
dative haltnak haltaknak
instrumental halttal haltakkal
causal-final haltért haltakért
translative halttá haltakká
terminative haltig haltakig
essive-formal haltként haltakként
essive-modal — —
inessive haltban haltakban
superessive halton haltakon
adessive haltnál haltaknál
illative haltba haltakba
sublative haltra haltakra
allative halthoz haltakhoz
elative haltból haltakból
delative haltról haltakról
ablative halttól haltaktól
non-attributive
possessive - singular 		halté haltaké
non-attributive
possessive - plural 		haltéi haltakéi

Irish

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Pronunciation

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Noun

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halt m

  1. h-prothesized form of alt

Norwegian Nynorsk

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Etymology 1

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From Old Norse haltr, from Proto-Germanic *haltaz.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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halt (indefinite singular halt, definite singular and plural halte, comparative haltare, indefinite superlative haltast, definite superlative haltaste)

  1. limp, limping

Verb

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halt

  1. imperative of halta

Etymology 2

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See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Participle

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halt (definite singular and plural halte)

  1. past participle of hala

Verb

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halt

  1. supine of hala

References

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Old French

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Etymology

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From a conflation of Frankish *hauh, *hōh (“high, tall, elevated”) and Latin altus (“high, raised, profound”).

Pronunciation

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IPA(key): /ˈhalt/

Adjective

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halt m (oblique and nominative feminine singular halte)

  1. high; elevated

Adverb

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halt

  1. loud; loudly

Derived terms

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Descendants

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Old Norse

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Adjective

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halt

  1. strong neuter nominative/accusative singular of haltr

Verb

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halt

  1. second-person singular imperative active of halda

Swedish

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Etymology

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From German Halt

Pronunciation

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Noun

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halt c

  1. content, level (relative amount of something, in a mixture or the like)
    alkoholhalt
    alcohol content
    fetthalt
    fat content
    sanningshalt
    veracity ("truth content")
    en hög halt av alkohol i blodet
    a high concentration of alcohol in the blood
  2. stopping (during a march, or more generally)
    Hären gjorde halt
    The army stopped ("made halt")

Declension

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Declension of halt 
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative halt halten halter halterna
Genitive halts haltens halters halternas
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Interjection

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halt

  1. halt! (stop!) (during a march, or more generally)

Adjective

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halt (not comparable)

  1. having a limp, lame, halt

Declension

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Inflection of halt
Indefinite Positive Comparative Superlative2
Common singular halt — —
Neuter singular halt — —
Plural halta — —
Masculine plural3 halte — —
Definite Positive Comparative Superlative
Masculine singular1 halte — —
All halta — —
1) Only used, optionally, to refer to things whose natural gender is masculine.
2) The indefinite superlative forms are only used in the predicative.
3) Dated or archaic
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Adjective

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halt

  1. indefinite neuter singular of hal

References

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