In talking about a court decision where they said someone was haled into court, Shu and I wondered if they used the right "hale." I thought it should be "hail," as in "hail" a cab. I had not realized that a definition for "hale" was to compel (someone) to go, or to haul or pull. Do you use "hale" that way?

It's my name and I never heard of that definition.

The OED says it's in use but doesn't have any citations later than 1898. It is a variant spelling of haul.

I've come across it but only rarely.

Wow, I've never even heard of that use.

Etymonline.com says it's from Old French 'haler' to haul (as opposed to our Eng 'hale' [& hearty], which relates to an Old Eng word haelp, from which whole and health are derived.) 'Haler' still means 'to haul' in contemporary French, but I wouldn't have known to connect that to 'haled into court'.

Courts of jurisprudence do hang on to those old words. Do some still say "Hear ye, hear ye" or "Oyez, oyez" as the judge enters?

quote:

Originally posted by bethree5:
Old Eng word haelp

hælþ

hale and haul are cognate with German holen to get, as in Bundespräsidentenwiederholungswahlverschiebung

quote:

The OED says it's in use but doesn't have any citations later than 1898. It is a variant spelling of haul.

Really? Shu pointed out two court cases (one a Supreme Court case) with "hale" in the title. That's how the word came up. Shu was reading the court case and asked me if they used the right hale. I said I thought they should have used hail, but I was wrong. I can't find the cases (I'll ask Shu to send them), but here is an interesting discussion.

Maybe it's more a U.S. usage?

I never heard it used that wait either.

Should Trump ever be impeached, he'll be hieled before the Senate.

Here's one of many examples:

quote:

[T]he Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause does not permit a State to hale an out-of-state corporation before its courts when the corporation is not “at home” in the State and the episode-in-suit occurred elsewhere."
- Supreme Court opinion (after the syllabus) in BNSF Railway Co. v. Tyrrell, May 30, 2017, at p. 2 (emphasis added)

Are there any examples in a non-legal context?

None that we could find. Perhaps it is only used that way in a legal context?

Oxord Dictionaries has several definitions under the hale 2 definition. Click on "More example sentences".

quote:

Originally posted by goofy:

quote:

Originally posted by bethree5:
Old Eng word haelp

hælþ

hale and haul are cognate with German holen to get, as in Bundespräsidentenwiederholungswahlverschiebung

I stand corrected! What's w/the funny-looking p?

Especially like the sample use of holen, but couldn't you have found a longer word?

quote:

Originally posted by bethree5:
I stand corrected! What's w/the funny-looking p?

Its the letter thorn: Þ þ. In Old English it was used for the voiced and voicless dental fricatives, as in "then" and "thing".
Old English also had eth: Ð ð - used interchangeably with thorn
And wynn: Ƿ ƿ - eventually replaced by the letter W
Thorn and eth are also used in Icelandic.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: goofy,

Thank you, goofy!