hell; hell
1879, General William T. Sherman, commencement address at the Michigan Military Academy
There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but, boys, it is all hell.
Why, am I dying? / Kill, have no fear / Lie, live off lying / Hell, hell is here [1986, “Disposable Heroes”, in Metallica (music), Master of Puppets:]
So how do the scientists cope with their work being ignored for decades, and living in a world their findings indicate is on a “highway to hell”?. [2024 May 8, Damian Carrington, “‘Hopeless and broken’: why the world’s top climate scientists are in despair. World’s top climate scientists expect global heating to blast past 1.5C target”, in The Guardian, UK:]
Here’s five-and-twenty for you. Don’t be losing it at the hells now. [1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 61, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:]
a convenient little gambling hell for those who had grown reckless [1877, William Black, Green Pastures and Piccadilly:]
There's light behind here—a hole through the wall. I believe the place is a regular swindling hell. [1923, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], “(please specify the page)”, in The Eyes of Max Carrados, London: Grant Richards, →OCLC:]
But there was also about him an indescribable air which no mechanic could have acquired in the practice of his handicraft however dishonestly exercised: […] the air of moral nihilism common to keepers of gambling hells and disorderly houses; […] [1906 January–October, Joseph Conrad, chapter II, in The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale (Collection of British Authors; 3995), copyright edition, London: Bernhard Tauchnitz, published 1907, →OCLC, page 15:]
You don’t have a snowball's chance in hell.
when hell freezes over
She's got her arms down to her side, defiant. But just for the hell of it, she leans into him, wraps her arms around his neck, puts her head on his shoulder, and hangs on tight. [1992, Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash, page 321:]
I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.
What the hell is wrong with you?!
He says he’s going home early? Like hell he is.
This sturdy Squire, he had, as well
As the bold Trojan Knight, seen Hell. [1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC:]
That steep staircase is hell on my knees.
Nouns inflected like hell
soldier's woundwort,
Nicosian,
whopper,
greypate,
tactile sign language,
chronotrope,
Rosie Lee,
dissentient,
photoinactivator,
sulphonediimine,
coastal waterfall,
residuary devise,
bituminization,
nitrosonaphthol,
smṛiti,
geosphere,
backscreen,
mensuralist,
flocculate,
flocculant, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
1. From Middle English hel, hell, helle, hælle, from Old English hel, hell, from Proto-West Germanic *hallju, from Proto-Germanic *haljō (“hell, netherworld”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (“to cover”). First attested in c. 725.
2. Cognates
3. Cognate with Yola helle (“hell”), Saterland Frisian Hälle (“hell”), West Frisian hel (“hell”), Alemannic German Hell (“hell”), Cimbrian hélla (“hell”), Dutch hel (“hell”), German Hölle (“hell”), Limburgish hel, Héll, Höll (“hell”), Luxembourgish Häll (“hell”), Vilamovian heł, hełł (“hell”), Danish helvede (“hell”), ihjel (“to death”), Faroese helviti (“hell”), Icelandic hel (“death, hell”), helvíti (“hell”), Norwegian Nynorsk hel (“death, underworld”), helvete (“hell”), Swedish helvete (“hell”), ihjäl (“to death”), Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌻𐌾𐌰 (halja, “hell”), Estonian koll (“bugbear”), Finnish koljo (“giant; evil spirit; devil”); also Cornish keles (“to conceal, hide”), Irish ceil (“to conceal, hide; to cover up”), Welsh celu (“to conceal, hide”), Faliscan 𐌂𐌄𐌋𐌀 (cela, “tomb”), Latin cella (“hut, storeroom; barn, granary”), Greek κολεός (koleós, “vagina; sheath; scabbard; coleus”), Lithuanian šalmas (“helmet”), Belarusian шало́м (šalóm, “helmet”), Bulgarian and Macedonian шлем (šlem, “helmet”), Old Polish szłom (“helmet”), Russian шело́м (šelóm), шлем (šlem, “helmet”), Serbo-Croatian шле̏м, шље̏м, šlȅm, šljȅm (“helmet”), Ukrainian шолом (šolom, “helmet”), Sanskrit शर्मन् (śarman, “safety, shelter; house; bliss, happiness, joy”).
4. Also related to the Hel of Germanic mythology. See also hele. See: Middle English Nouns '
hel', Old English Nouns '
hel', Dutch Nouns '
hel', German Nouns '
Hölle', Danish Nouns '
helvede', Faroese Nouns '
helviti', Icelandic Nouns '
hel', Swedish Nouns '
helvete', Gothic Nouns '
𐌷𐌰𐌻𐌾𐌰', Finnish Nouns '
koljo', Latin Nouns '
cella', Greek Nouns '
κολεός', Ukrainian Nouns '
шолом'.
Verbs referencing "hell"
Latvian Nouns
elle, German Nouns
Hölle, Gothic Nouns
𐌷𐌰𐌻𐌾𐌰.
