hallowed
adjective
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Hallowed Has Old English Roots
The adjective hallowed, meaning "holy" or "revered," isn’t especially spooky, but its history is entwined with that of a certain spooky season. Hallowed is the past participle of the verb hallow, a term that descends from the Middle English word halowen. That word can be traced back to the Old English adjective hālig, meaning "holy." During the Middle Ages, All Hallows' Day was the name for what Christians now call All Saints' Day (hallow was once used also as a noun referring to a saint), and the evening that preceded All Hallows' Day was All Hallows' Eve or All Hallow Even—or, as we know it today, Halloween. (Although pumpkins are often hollowed out on Halloween, hollow has a different Old English root.)
Examples of hallowed in a Sentence
Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rolling Stone, 13 Mar. 2025
On the runway, Chanel also reimagined its hallowed tweed skirt suit with bursts of tulle, floor-length hem-lines and necklines slashed off-the-shoulder.
—Leah Dolan, CNN, 13 Mar. 2025
On the summit, there’s an old white-washed pilgrimage church, a hallowed Black Madonna, a panoramic city view, and for-sale T-shirts featuring narcoterrorist Pablo Escobar.
—Norma Meyer, Orange County Register, 12 Mar. 2025
On March 3, 2025, Indy Autonomous Challenge (IAC) and its partners organized an event in which an autonomous commercial Maserati MC20 Coupe with no human driver on board raced on this hallowed runway and broke a speed record at 197.7 mph (318 km/h).
—Sabbir Rangwala, Forbes, 10 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for hallowed
Cite this Entry
“Hallowed.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hallowed. Accessed 22 Mar. 2025.
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