*haljō

Runic: ᚺᚨᛚᛃᛟ Pronunciation: /ˈxɑl.jɔː/

noun · feminine · ō-stem

Meanings

the netherworld, the underworld, hell

Etymology

Likely from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel-yo- or *ḱol-yeh₂-, from *ḱel- (‘to cover, hide, conceal’), and cognate with *helaną (‘to cover’), though note also similar words in Finno-Ugric, including Finnish koljo (‘giant’) and Udmurt кыль (kyľ, ‘evil spirit’), which have been considered as native Uralic words and not borrowings from Germanic.

Declension

Case	Singular	Plural
Nom.	haljō	haljôz
Acc.	haljǭ	haljōz
Gen.	haljōz	haljǫ̂
Dat.	haljōi	haljōmaz
Inst.	haljō	haljōmiz
Voc.	haljō	haljôz

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Descendants

*hallju (Proto-West Germanic)
- hella (Old Dutch)
  - helle (Middle Dutch)
    - hel (Limburgish)
*hallju (Proto-West Germanic)
- hella (Old Dutch)
  - helle (Middle Dutch)
    - hel (Dutch)
      - hel (Afrikaans)
*hallju (Proto-West Germanic)
- hell, hel (Old English)
  - helle, hel, hell, hælle (Middle English)
    - hell, Hell (English)
    - hell, Hell (Scots)
*hallju (Proto-West Germanic)
- helle, hille (Old Frisian)
  - helle, hille, hel (North Frisian)
  - Hälle (Saterland Frisian)
  - hel (West Frisian)
*hallju (Proto-West Germanic)
- hellia, hella (Old High German)
  - helle (Middle High German)
    - Hell (Alemannic German)
    - hélla (Cimbrian)
    - Helle, Hölle (German)
    - Häll (Luxembourgish)
    - ? (Rhine Franconian)
*hallju (Proto-West Germanic)
- hel, hellja, hellia (Old Saxon)
  - helle (Middle Low German)
    - Helle, Hölle, Hell, Höll (German Low German)
    - Hal (Plautdietsch)
    - ? (Westphalian)
hel (Old Norse)
- hel (Faroese)
- hel (Icelandic)
- hel (Norwegian Nynorsk)
hel (Old Norse)
- hæl (Old Swedish)
  - ihjäl, helsike (Swedish)
𐌷𐌰𐌻𐌾𐌰 (halja) (Gothic)
*koljoi (Proto-Finnic)

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