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Halloween

3 stages from Old English to English.

Today it means the night of 31 October, celebrated with costumes and trick-or-treating

Where does the word "halloween" come from? It comes from Old English hālga, passing through Scots before entering English (1800s).

hālga→Hallowe'en→Halloween

Old English · medieval

'holy one, saint'; the feast of All Saints on 1 November was known as All Hallows, and in 835 Louis the Pious, at Pope Gregory IV's urging, made it a holy day across the Frankish empire

"eve of All Saints"

contracted from All-Hallow-Even; Robert Burns's poem 'Halloween' (1785) records Ayrshire fortune-telling customs on the night, which drew on the Gaelic festival of Samhain

American English · 1800s

"31 October celebration"

Irish and Scottish immigrants carried the customs to the US, where trick-or-treating spread in the 1930s-50s

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Halloween’s story begins in Old English: hālga meant “saint.” 'holy one, saint'; the feast of All Saints on 1 November was known as All Hallows, and in 835 Louis the Pious, at Pope Gregory IV's urging, made it a holy day across the Frankish empire. By 1700s, the word had taken hold in Scots as Hallowe'en. Contracted from All-Hallow-Even; Robert Burns's poem 'Halloween' (1785) records Ayrshire fortune-telling customs on the night, which drew on the Gaelic festival of Samhain. It reached English by 1800s as Halloween. Irish and Scottish immigrants carried the customs to the US, where trick-or-treating spread in the 1930s-50s. Today, halloween means the night of 31 October, celebrated with costumes and trick-or-treating.