Heil og sæl
Heil og sæl (English: lit. healthy and happy) was a common greeting in the Norse society, then spelled heill ok sæll.
Etymology
Originally a Norse greeting, it had the form heill ok sæll when addressed to a man and heil ok sæl when addressed to a woman.
The adjective heil (also hel) from Old Norse heill, means whole or healthy. [1] It is also related to the English adjective whole/hale. The verb heile (also hele) is related to the English verb heal through their common origin, the Germanic word stem haila.
The adjective sæl, meaning happy or glad, is in Old English documented only in the negated variant unsǣle, meaning evil.[2]
20th-century use
During the 1940–1945 German occupation of Norway, National Unification, being the governing and only legal political party, sought to introduce all parts of society to a greeting combining heil og sæl and a raised right hand. The attempt was not successful, but said greeting remained compulsory for party members and police.
References
- ^ <http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/heil>
- ^ Bjorvand & Lindemand (2000), page ?.
Literature
- Bjorvand, Harald and Lindemand, Fredrik Otto (2000): Våre arveord : Etymologisk ordbok