An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Heil

by Friedrich Kluge

Heil, neuter, ‘health, welfare, salvation,’ from Middle High German and Old High German heil, neuter, ‘health, happiness, salvation’; compare Anglo-Saxon hœ̂l, neuter (for hâli, from hailiz), ‘health, happiness, favourable omen’; Old Icelandic heill, neuter (feminine) (from hailiz), ‘favourable omen, happiness.’ Not the neuter of the following adjective, but properly an older as stem, pre-Teutonic káilos (declined like Greek γένος, Latin genus, neuter). Compare also the next word.