Etymograph

English

hell

Hell comes from Middle English hel, from Old English hel, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *haljō.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*haljō1‘hell’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*hallju1‘the netherworld’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150hel1
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500hel1
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1596–1598hell1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English hell
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1596–1598, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice: “O hell! what have we here? A carrion Death,…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*haljōWiktionary, English hell‘hell’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*halljuWiktionary, English hell‘the netherworld’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150helWiktionary, English hell
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500helWiktionary, English hell
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1596–1598hellWiktionary, English hell. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1596–1598, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice: “O hell! what have we here? A carrion Death,…”

first attested First attested in c. 725 (as stated in Wiktionary’s etymology)

The story

First attested in c. 725.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with hell, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- ‘to cover’

  • color ← colour ← colur ← colōs ← *kelōs
  • hole ← hol ← *hol ← *hulą ← *hulaz
  • hall ← halle ← heall ← *hallu ← *hallō
  • holder ← hold ← holden ← healdan ← *haldan
  • ceiling ← celing ← celer ← cēlō
  • cell ← celle ← cella
  • halt ← halten ← halten ← haltan ← *haldan
  • hull ← hul ← hulu ← *hul-
  • hollow ← holow ← holh ← *holh ← *hulwiją
  • holden ← healden ← *haldan ← *haldaną
  • conceal ← concelen ← conceler ← concēlō
  • uphold ← upholden ← holden ← healdan ← *haldan

53 more relatives in the full family tree

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Today it means

name A place of torment where some or all sinners are believed to go after death and evil spirits are believed to be.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “hell”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *haljō / hell