all hail

The interjection is derived from Middle English al-heil, al heyl (“used as a salutation when meeting someone: your health!, hello!”),^[1] from al (“denoting totality”)^[2] + heil, heyl (“health, welfare; good fortune”, noun)^[3]:

• Al is derived from Old English eall, from Proto-West Germanic *all (“all”), from Proto-Germanic *allaz (“all; entire, whole”); further etymology uncertain, possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂el- (“beyond; other”).
• Heil is from Old Norse heill (“hale, healthy; whole”, adjective), from Proto-Germanic *hailaz (“hale, healthy; entire, whole”), from Proto-Indo-European *kéh₂ilos (“healthy; whole”)).^[4]

The noun is derived from the interjection.^[4]

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌɔːl ˈheɪl/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌɔl ˈheɪl/, (cot–caught merger) /ˌɑl-/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪl

all hail (chiefly archaic except humorous)

2. Used as a friendly or respectful salutation to acclaim, greet, or welcome someone: (I wish you) all health or good fortune!

   Synonym: (archaic or poetic) hail

   • 1534 November, Willyam Tindale [i.e., William Tyndale], transl., The Newe Testament […] (Tyndale Bible), Antwerp: […] Marten Emperowr, The Gospell of S. Mathew xxviii:[8–9], folios xliiii, verso – xlv, recto:

     And as they [Mary Magdalene and "the other Mary"] went to tell his diſciples: beholde⸝ Jeſus met them ſayinge: All hayle. And they came and held him by the fete ⁊ worſhipped him.

   • 1557 December 13 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Virgil, “The Seuenth Booke”, in Thomas Phaer, transl., The Seuen First Bookes of the Eneidos of Virgill, Conuerted in Englishe Meter […], London: […] Ihon Kyngston, for Richard Jugge, […], published 7 June 1558 (Gregorian calendar), →OCLC, signature [S.iv.], recto:

     Alhayle O contrey myne by deſtnye due, / And you alhayll (ꝙ [quoth] he,) O Troian gods of promiſe true.

   • c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene vii], page 172, column 2:

     […] Iudas kiſt his maſter [Jesus], / And cried all haile, vvhen as he meant all harme.

   • 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], page 39, column 2:

     Yet I vvell remember / The fauors of theſe men: vvere they not mine? / Did they not ſometime cry, All hayle to me? / So Iudas did to Chriſt: but he in tvvelue, / Found truth in all, but one; I, in tvvelue thouſand, none.

   • 1689, A[phra] Behn, A Congratulatory Poem to Her Sacred Majesty Queen Mary, upon Her Arrival in England, London: […] R. E. for R. Bentley […], and W. Canning […], →OCLC, page 4:

     All Hail Illuſtrious Daughter of a King, / Shining vvithout, and Glorious all vvithin, […]

   • 1821, Lord Byron, “Cain, a Mystery”, in Sardanapalus, a Tragedy; The Two Foscari, a Tragedy; Cain, a Mystery, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 341:

     GOD, the Eternal! Infinite! All-Wise!— / Who out of darkness on the deep didst make / Light on the waters with a word—all hail! / Jehovah, with returning light, all hail!

3. Chiefly followed by to (someone or something): used as a salutation to indicate that someone or something is respected or welcome.
   • 1719, Thomas d’Urfey, compiler, “A New Song. The Good Fellow.”, in Songs Compleat, Pleasant and Divertive; […], volume IV, London: […] W. Pearson, for J[acob] Tonson, […], published 19th century, →OCLC, page 241:

     All Hail to the Days that merit more Praise, / Than all the rest of the Year; / And welcome the Nights that bringeth delights, / As well to the Poor as the Peer.

• all-hail (verb)

• hail

all hail (plural all hails)

1. A salutation of "all hail" (interjection sense 1); hence, a salutation indicating respect or welcome.
   • [1589?], Cutbert Curry-knaue [pseudonym; Thomas Nashe], “To that Most Comicall and Conceited Caualeire Monsieur du Kempe, Iestmonger and Vice-gerent generall to the Ghost of Dicke Tarlton. His Louing Brother Cutbert Curry-knaue Sendeth Greeting.”, in An Almond for a Parrat, or Cutbert Curry-knaues Almes. […], [London]: […] [Eliot’s Court Press], →OCLC, signature A2, recto:

     Brother Kempe, as many alhailes to thy perſon as there be haicocks in Iuly at Pancredge: […]

   • 1603 (first performance), Ben[jamin] Jonson, Seianus His Fall, London: […] G[eorge] Elld, for Thomas Thorpe, published 1605, →OCLC, Act V, signature L3, verso:

     Take heede you be not laſt / To tender your All Hayle, in the vvide hall / Of huge Seianus: […]

   • 1785, James Boswell, “Thursday, 26th August [1773]”, in The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, with Samuel Johnson, LL.D. […], London: […] Henry Baldwin, for Charles Dilly, […], →OCLC, page 123:

     He [Samuel Johnson] then parodied the All-hail of the vvitches to Macbeth, addreſſing himſelf to me.

   • 1826, [Walter Scott], chapter X, in Woodstock; Or, The Cavalier. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, →OCLC, page 237:

     [H]e frequently repeated his welcomes and all-hails before he could be brought to attend to what that gentleman said in reply.

   • 1867, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The Adirondacs. A Journal. Dedicated to My Fellow-travellers in August, 1858.”, in May-Day and Other Pieces, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, page 61:

     [W]itness the mute all-hail / The joyful traveller gives, when on the verge / Of craggy Indian wilderness he hears / From a log-cabin stream Beethoven's notes / On the piano, played with master's hand.

• All Hail (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “all hail”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.