An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Hellbank

by Friedrich Kluge

Hellbank, Höllbank, feminine, ‘bench near the stove,’ allied to earlier Modern High German Helle, Hölle, feminine, ‘the narrow space between the stove and the wall’; the word is first recorded towards the end of the 15th century, but was in existence at an earlier period. Compare Anglo-Saxon heal, Middle English hal, ‘angle, corner’ (compare Old Irish cuil, ‘corner’). The Modern High German form is due to a confusion with Hölle, which, like the Modern High German Hell- ‘winkel,’ is connected with the root hel, ‘to veil, conceal.’