An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/hold

by Friedrich Kluge

hold, adjective, ‘favourable, gracious, charming, lovely,’ from Middle High German holt (genitive holdes), Old High German hold, adjective, ‘gracious, condescending, favourable, faithful’; Gothic hulþs, ‘gracious,’ Old Icelandic hollr, ‘gracious, faithful, healthy,’ Anglo-Saxon and Old Saxon hold. The common Teutonic adjective originally denoted the relation of the feudal lord and his retainers (‘condescending, gracious,’ on the one side, ‘faithful, devoted,’ on the other); compare Middle High German holde, masculine, ‘vassal.’ The idea expressed by hold was also current in the religious sphere — Gothic unhulþôns, feminine, literally ‘fiends, devils,’ Old High German holdo, ‘genius,’ Middle High German die guoten holden, ‘penates.’ Hold is usually connected with an Old Teutonic root hal, ‘to bow,’ to which Old High German hald, ‘inclined,’ is allied; see Halde. It has also been referred to hal-ten on the supposition that the dental is derivative; hold, adjective, ‘guarded, nursed’?. From the phonetic point of view there is no important objection to either of these derivations.