is a

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

word, used by the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

s as a

salutation A salutation is a greeting used in a Letter (message), letter or other communication. Salutations can be formal or informal. The most common form of salutation in an English letter includes the recipient's given name or title. For each style of ...

and

greeting Greeting is an act of communication in which human beings intentionally make their presence known to each other, to show attention to, and to suggest a type of relationship (usually cordial) or social status (formal or informal) between individ ...

, meaning '

hail Hail is a form of solid Precipitation (meteorology), precipitation. It is distinct from ice pellets (American English "sleet"), though the two are often confused. It consists of balls or irregular lumps of ice, each of which is called a hailsto ...

'. It is the singular imperative form of the verb , which meant ' to be well'; thus one could translate it literally as 'be well' or 'farewell'.

Etymology

is likely borrowed with an unspelled /h/ from

Punic The Punic people, usually known as the Carthaginians (and sometimes as Western Phoenicians), were a Semitic people who migrated from Phoenicia to the Western Mediterranean during the Early Iron Age. In modern scholarship, the term ''Punic'' ...

('live!', . .) The form might have been influenced by , the second-person singular present imperative of (first-person ), meaning 'to be well/to fare well'. Indeed, its long vowel also ended up short via iambic shortening; this would explain the reluctance to spell the aspirate, as well as its interpretation as a verb form. The word has been attested since

Plautus Titus Maccius Plautus ( ; 254 – 184 BC) was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest Latin literary works to have survived in their entirety. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the genre devised by Livius Andro ...

Use

The

Classical Latin Classical Latin is the form of Literary Latin recognized as a Literary language, literary standard language, standard by writers of the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire. It formed parallel to Vulgar Latin around 75 BC out of Old Latin ...

pronunciation of is (). As far back as the first century AD, the greeting in popular use had the form (pronounced or perhaps ), with the aspirated initial syllable and the second syllable shortened, for which the most explicit description has been given by

Quintilian Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (; 35 – 100 AD) was a Roman educator and rhetorician born in Hispania, widely referred to in medieval schools of rhetoric and in Renaissance writing. In English translation, he is usually referred to as Quin ...

in his . While would be informal in part because it has the non-etymological aspiration, centuries later, any and all aspiration would instead completely disappear from popular speech, becoming an artificial and learned feature. in

Ecclesiastical Latin Ecclesiastical Latin, also called Church Latin or Liturgical Latin, is a form of Latin developed to discuss Christian theology, Christian thought in Late antiquity and used in Christianity, Christian liturgy, theology, and church administration ...

is , and in English, it tends to be pronounced . The term was notably used to greet the

Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war. He ...

or other authorities.

Suetonius Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (), commonly referred to as Suetonius ( ; – after AD 122), was a Roman historian who wrote during the early Imperial era of the Roman Empire. His most important surviving work is ''De vita Caesarum'', common ...

recorded that on one occasion, naumachiarii—captives and criminals fated to die fighting during mock naval encounters—addressed Claudius Caesar with the words "" ('Hail, Caesar! Those who are about to die salute you!') in an attempt to avoid death.

, '' De Vita Caesarum: Divus Claudius'', 21.6 The expression is not recorded as being used in Roman times on any other occasion. The

Vulgate The Vulgate () is a late-4th-century Bible translations into Latin, Latin translation of the Bible. It is largely the work of Saint Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels used by the Diocese of ...

version of the

Annunciation The Annunciation (; ; also referred to as the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Annunciation of Our Lady, or the Annunciation of the Lord; ) is, according to the Gospel of Luke, the announcement made by the archangel Gabriel to Ma ...

translates Translation is the communication of the semantics, meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The English la ...

the salute of the angel to

Mary, Mother of Jesus Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...

as "" ('Hail, full of grace'). The phrase "

Hail Mary The Hail Mary or Ave Maria (from its first words in Latin), also known as the Angelic or Angelical Salutation, is a traditional Catholic prayer addressing Mary, the mother of Jesus. The prayer is based on two biblical passages featured in the ...

" () is a Catholic Marian prayer that has inspired authors of religious music.

Fascist Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural soci ...

regimes during the 20th century also adopted the greeting. It was also distinctly used during the National Socialist

Third Reich Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...

in the indirect German translation, . is not to be confused with Latin as the vocative singular of , meaning 'grandfather/forebear', or as the ablative singular of meaning 'bird'.

References

{{Reflist Latin words and phrases Greeting words and phrases

Etymology

Use

See also

References