Where did hell come from?

What’s the opposite of these words: “to torment and punish forever?” How about “to cover, conceal, and protect for a temporary period of time?” Shockingly, perhaps for some, this latter phrase is the etymology and original meaning for our modern English word “hell.” Moreover, it comes from a pagan source and not from the Bible. It also has little, if any, resemblance to our modern-day images of hell.

Etymology is the study of the origin, history, and derivation of words. The New Encyclopedia Britannica confirms this little-known etymology this way: “Hell, the abode or state of being of evil spirits or souls that are damned to postmortem punishment. Derived from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning “to conceal,” or “to cover . . . .” Webster’s Dictionary explains that “hell” comes from middle English, old English, and old high German, (hel, helle, helan) and arose during the Anglo-Saxon pagan period (A.D. 400 – 1100).

Our word helmet is derived from this same etymology, root, and meaning. A helmet covers, conceals, and protects the head. It certainly does not torment or punish one’s head. Similarly, the word “hel” or “helle” was used in Europe during the middle ages when potato farmers would “hel” their potatoes. That is, during the winter they would cover, conceal, and protect their potatoes by digging holes, putting their potatoes in the ground, and covering them with dirt. These farmers referred to this process as “putting their potatoes in hel”—again, for the purpose of care and protection, and not torment and punishment.

Today, most housewives conceal and protect the potatoes they buy at the store by storing them in a dark place so they won’t sprout buds and go soft and bad as quickly as they would in a lighted and open area. In some parts of England it is also said that to cover a building with a roof of tiles or thatch was “to hel the building.” That job was done by people called “helliers.” Therefore, to hel a house meant to cover and protect it with a roof. I’m told that the term heling a house is still used in the New England portions of the United States.

Thus, the origin and basic meaning of the word “hell” had nothing to do with an other-worldly, afterlife place or with a place of eternal torment and punishment with no hope of escape. That connotation or derivation had to come later. But the modern-day meaning evolved, or devolved, depending on your perspective, from referring to the common earthly grave of all deceased human beings into its meaning today of being a nether-world place of eternal conscious torment and punishment for only the damned.

Consequently, most of our thinking about hell and hellfire today does not come from either the Bible or from its etymology and historical usage.

Sources:

1 Hell Yes / Hell No by John Noe