Held
/hɛld/noun
Past tense and past participle of hold, meaning to have grasped, kept, or maintained.
Did you know?Held descends from Proto-Germanic *haldaną, a verb tied to the idea of keeping something intact or under control, which is why it still carries the sense of restraint and possession.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*kel-
“to drive, impel; to urge on”
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*haldaną
“to hold, keep, tend”
Old English
OE
healdan
“to hold, keep, observe, guard”
Middle English
ME
helde
“held, kept, maintained”
Modern English
English
held
“past tense and past participle of hold”