hallow

Etymology 1

From Middle English halwe (“a saint, holy thing, shrine”), from Old English hālga (“a holy one, saint”), from Proto-Germanic *hailagô (“holy one”), from *hailagaz (“holy”), from Proto-Germanic *hailaz (“whole, safe, hale”), from Proto-Indo-European *kóylos (“safe, unharmed”). Cognate with Scots halow, hallow (“saint”), German Heilige (“saint”). More at holy, whole.

noun

1. (obsolete outside set phrases) A saint; a holy person; an apostle.
   All Hallows Eve (or Halloween), the night before All Hallows Day (now more commonly known as "All Saints Day").
2. (obsolete, in the plural) The relics or shrines of saints or non-Christian gods.
   To seek hallows: to visit relics or shrines, in the belief that the saints themselves are present there.

Etymology 2

From Middle English halwen (“to hallow, sanctify”), from Old English hālgian (“to hallow, sanctify, make holy”), from Proto-Germanic *hailagōną (“to make holy”), from *hailagaz (“holy”), from Proto-Germanic *hailaz (“whole, safe, hale”), from Proto-Indo-European *kóylos (“safe, unharmed”). Cognate with Dutch heiligen (“to hallow”), German heiligen (“to hallow”). More at holy.

verb

1. (transitive) To make holy, to sanctify.
   Come hallow the goblet with something more true / Than words we forget in a minute. 1847, Charles Swain, Dramatic Chapters: Poems and Songs, D. Bogue, page 324

Etymology 3

From Middle English halowen, from halow (interjection), from Old English ēalā (“O!, alas!, oh!, lo!”, interjection), probably conflated with Old French halloer.

verb

1. To shout, especially to urge on dogs for hunting.

noun

1. A shout, cry; a hulloo.
   Then away they went from merry Sherwood / And into Yorkshire he did hie / And the King did follow, with a hoop and a hallow / But could not come him nigh. 1777, Robin Hood's Chase, reprinted in 2003, Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, Courier Dover Publications, page 206
   I told them, the sherriff could not be admitted on board this time of night, on which they set up a hallow and rowed as fast as they could towards the vessel's bows. 1772, William Read Staples, The Documentary History of the Destruction of the Gaspee, Knowles, Vose, and Anthony, published 1845, page 14

Etymology 4

adj

1. Alternative spelling of hollow
   If the sun were a hallow sphere of its present size and the earth were placed at the center…. Such a hallow sphere would hold more than a million balls the size of the earth. 1902, National Council of Geography Teachers (U.S.), The Journal of Geography, National Council for Geographic Education, page 93
   But it was not a hallow victory. 2003, George A. Lyall, To a Different Drummer: A Family's Story, Xlibris Corporation, page 208