Etymology of health and its Semantic Galaxy

IR Web Site

Bibliographic Information

Other Title
  • healthの語源とその同族語との意味的連鎖 : 意味的連鎖という視点からの語源研究の有効性
  • 資料 healthの語源とその同族語との意味的連鎖--意味的連鎖という視点からの語源研究の有効性
  • シリョウ health ノ ゴゲン ト ソノ ドウゾクゴ ト ノ イミテキ レンサ イミテキ レンサ ト イウ シテン カラ ノ ゴゲン ケンキュウ ノ ユウコウセイ

Search this article

Description

The present essay deals with the etymology of health and its cognates and, as a result, tries to constellate the group of these cognate words in a semantic galaxy. The word health originates in OE hal whose meaning is“ whole.” Morphologically, health is composed of OE hal （whole） and a noun-suffix （-th） , meaning literally“ wholeness.” From the OE word hal , the following modern English words are derived: whole, hale, holy, heal, hallow , etc. Modern High German words heilen, Heil, heilig , etc. are also of the same origin. 　All these words have an common image of“ wholeness” , which was worshipped by the people of the ancient Germanic tribes. In Germanic, as well as proto Indo-European, mythology, a great icy egg, called Hagal, was regarded as the original“ unity” of the Father Heaven and the Mother Nature. In modern English, the word hail has two completely different meanings:“ pellets of frozen rain（ ice）” and“ call out greeting or acclaim.” Originally, however, these two meanings are of the same semantic root, i.e., Hagal, an icy egg representing“ completeness, wholeness, stability, etc” . 　Thus, tracing back to the ultimate origin of a word, we can grasp its basic image and its cultural and intellectual-historical background partly or totally vanished today. With this adventure in words, we can look into the world of ancient people and recognize what is produced by the human mind, i.e., what is recognized by them.

Journal

Keywords

Details 詳細情報について

Report a problem

Back to top