health
EnglishEdit
Etymology 1Edit
From Middle English helþe, from Old English hǣlþ, from Proto-West Germanic *hailiþu, from Proto-Germanic *hailaz (“whole, hale”). Cognate with Old High German heilida. Analyzable as whole + -th.
Alternative formsEdit
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
health (usually uncountable, plural healths)
- The state of being free from physical or psychological disease, illness, or malfunction; wellness. [from 11th c.]
- Her mental health is really affected by stressful environments.
- 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 4, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:
- Then he commenced to talk, really talk. and inside of two flaps of a herring's fin he had me mesmerized, like Eben Holt's boy at the town hall show. He talked about the ills of humanity, and the glories of health and Nature and service and land knows what all.
- A state of well-being or balance, often physical but sometimes also mental and social; the overall level of function of an organism from the cellular (micro) level to the social (macro) level.
- The directors are concerned about the financial health of the project.
- Physical condition.
- (obsolete) Cure, remedy. [16th c. (Middle English: 11th-15th c.)]
- (countable) A toast to prosperity. [from 17th c.]
- 2002, Joshua Scodel, Excess and the Mean in Early Modern English Literature, page 213:
- Strikingly, however, Waller does not deny but rather revels in the claim that healths lead to excessive drinking
- (video games) The amount of damage an in-game object can withstand before it is destroyed.
- The enemies on this level have a lot of health.
- 2018 March 6, Martin Robinson, “Dispelling the myths of Bloodborne”, in Eurogamer[1]:
- Lose a little health and there's a few seconds in which you'll be able to win it back by ragging on an enemy.
Derived termsEdit
Related termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
state of being free of physical or psychological disease, illness, or malfunction
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physical condition
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overall level of function of an organism
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Etymology 2Edit
From Middle English heleð (“man, hero, fighter”), from Old English hæleþ (“man, hero, fighter”), from Proto-West Germanic *haliþ, from Proto-Germanic *haliþaz (“man, hero”). Cognate with West Frisian held (“hero”), Dutch held (“hero”), German Held (“hero”), Danish helt (“hero”), Swedish hjälte (“hero”), Norwegian hold (“hero”).
Alternative formsEdit
NounEdit
health (plural healths)
- (obsolete) A warrior; hero; man.
- 1612, Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion
- They, under false pretence of amity and cheer, the British peers invite, the German healths to view.
- 1612, Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion
ReferencesEdit
- health in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- health in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911.