Talk:hele

heal
RFV of the "hide"- and "conceal"-related senses. I don't like to RFV things without making a more rigorous search than I had time to make in this case (sorry), but I did make a cursory search which turned up nothing, and Century calls hele "a Middle English form". For hele, the EDD suggests the usexes "it heles in well", "it heles in badly" (about corn/seeds that can be covered over well in a furrow, or can't), but these don't turn up any hits. "Holen" (listed as a past tense form) seems to only exist as a dialectal, eye dialectal or pronunciation-respelled form of "holdin'". The EDD might have enough citations to attest at least one sense at the spelling heal. - -sche (discuss) 06:58, 18 May 2019 (UTC)
 * A look at the Middle English Dictionary shows that was used right up to the end of the Middle English period, and it also shows some citations at and beyond 1500: 1500, Theyre gownys be sett with plytys fele, To schortt yt ys theyre kneys to hele.; 1500, Clothes of sylke ye shalle haue..Fayre townes and castelles to hell In your hede.; 1525, Þe yonger kynge henry..the lyddernysse that he hadde I-thoght to hys fadyr nold no lenger hellen. (though this looks much older, it is clearly given as 1525). Leasnam (talk) 19:53, 18 May 2019 (UTC)
 * From what I've read, definitely survives into ModE, though outside of dialects, a few archaising uses, and the Masonic oath to, it is only current in the form  (usually as "heel in"); where it survives, the past forms are uniformly weak. However, it's well and alive in Scots. Hazarasp (parlement · werkis) 09:21, 14 February 2020 (UTC)
 * Aha, with that tip, I located a few more citations of hele ("keep secret"), two of which I added to the entry. They're clearly invoking the language of the Masons, but they use different verb tenses and seem to have quite different objects, so they're not exact quotes and seem more like situations where someone coins or popularizes a phrase and others use it in reference to them but "independently" in the sense of CFI—though I admit it's a grey area and if someone could find a third non-Masonic cite or track down Spenser's, that'd be ideal. I removed the strong past forms. I also managed to cite "heal" in reference to three different secret societies (of horsemen, of witches, and of masons), though again I couldn't find the strong past forms. And I've found enough citations of plants/roots being heled/heeled in to have senses for that at hele and heel. Hooray. I think this is cited. - -sche (discuss) 19:13, 14 February 2020 (UTC)


 * RFV-passed. - -sche (discuss) 08:06, 23 February 2020 (UTC)