An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/heil

by Friedrich Kluge

heil, adjective, ‘hale, healthy, sound,’ from Middle High German and Old High German heil, adjective, ‘healthy, whole, saved’; compare Old Saxon hél, Anglo-Saxon kâl, English whole, Old Icelandic heill, ‘healthy, healed,’ Gothic hails, ‘healthy, sound,’ In Old Teutonic the nominative of this adjective was used as a salutation (Gothic hails! χαῖρε! Anglo-Saxon wës hâl!) Teutonic haila-z, from pre-Teutonic kailos (-lo- is a suffix), corresponds exactly to Old Slovenian cĕlŭ, ‘complete, whole,’ which, like Prussian kailûstikun, ‘health’ (from *kailûstas, ‘healthy’), is based upon Aryan kailo-; the Old Irish cognate cél, ‘augury,’ corresponds to Anglo-Saxon hœ̂l, Old Icelandic heill, neuter, ‘favorable omen,’ as well as to Old High German heilisôn and Anglo-Saxon hœ̂lsian, ‘to augur.’ Sanscrit kalya-s, ‘healthy,’ kalyãna-s, ‘beautiful,’ and Greek καλός, κάλλος, are probably not related to the root kai with the suffix lo-.