Halloween

Meaning

Proper Noun

• The eve of All Hallows' Day; October 31st; celebrated (mostly in English-speaking countries) by children going door-to-door in costume and demanding candy with menaces.

Origin

• A Scottish shortening of Allhalloweven, from Allhallowmas (the obsolete earlier name of All Saints' Day) + even (an archaic/poetic cognate of eve).
• Allhallowmas can be superficially analyzed as a combination of all + hallow ("saint, holy person") + -mas ("mass, church festival, holiday" as in Christmas), but it's actually a direct descendant of the Middle English and Old English terms for All Saints' Day, whose parts mean the same as in the modern expression: (Middle English Alhalwemesse) and Old English ealra hālgena mæsse (literally "the mass of all the saints", from eall, halga, and mæsse).