health
/hɛlθ
/- Take one step at a time and walk your way to health with a free, short walk led by a trained volunteer.
- I hear that they pose health risks to the local population at this time of year.
- Her concerns include possible health risks to children and the blight on her property.
Synonyms
- One of the functions of day services is to maintain people in good mental health and to prevent relapse.
- My mental health began to deteriorate and by January I was in hospital after an overdose.
- No set qualifications are needed but applicants must be in good physical health.
Synonyms
- After the requisite chilling and hearing that satisfying noise of the cork going ‘pop’ I shall certainly raise a glass to your good health.
- Here's to your good health and prosperity in the New Year!
Origin
Old English hǣlth, of Germanic origin; related to whole.
well from Old English:
The well meaning ‘in a good way’ and well ‘shaft giving access to water’ are different Old English words. The first provides the first half of welfare (Middle English). The start of welcome (Old English), on the other hand, is from another Old English element, wil- meaning ‘pleasure’—welcome originally meant ‘a person whose arrival is pleasing’. Wealth (Middle English) has a basic sense of ‘well-being’, being formed from well in the same way that health (Old English) is formed from hale (see wassail). The title of Shakespeare's comedy All's Well that Ends Well was already an old saying when he wrote the play at the beginning of the 17th century. The first record of the proverb is as early as 1250. People have been well endowed only since the 1950s, but men could be well-hung in the early 17th century. At this time it meant ‘having large ears’ as well as ‘having a large penis’. The well you get water from is Old English wella ‘spring of water’, of Germanic origin, from a base meaning ‘boil, bubble up’,