hell

\ \ [OE] Etymologically, hell is a ‘hidden place’.

\ \ It goes back ultimately to Indo-European *kel- ‘cover, hide’, which was contributed an extraordinary number of words to English, including apocalypse, cell, cellar, conceal, helmet, hull ‘pod’, occult, and possibly colour and holster. Its Germanic descendant was *khel-, *khal-, whose derivatives included *khallō and *khaljō. The first became modern English hall, the second modern English hell – so both hall and hell were originally ‘concealed or covered places’, although in very different ways: the hall with a roof, hell with at least six feet of earth.

\ \ Related Germanic forms include German hölle, Dutch hel, and Swedish helvete (in which vete means ‘punishment’).

\ \ Cf.⇒ APOCALYPSE, CELL, CONCEAL, HALL, HELMET, HULL, OCCULT