Helere

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An archaic term for a person who restores the sick or injured to health ; a craftsman who covers roofs with slates, tiles or thatch in earlier English
2. A former word for someone who cures illness or mends wounds ; a worker who laid roofing materials such as tiles over a building
3. An old-fashioned name for a healer of the sick ; a medieval tradesman who put up roof coverings on houses and other buildings

Etymology: Before it meant anyone who healed, the Middle English "helere" meant one who covered or concealed. Its Old English ancestor, also "helere," was built on the verb "helan," "to cover, hide," and a common Middle English sense was a roofer, a person who covered buildings with tiles or thatch. The word was a concealer of things in a more literal sense than the modern dictionary suggests. Its modern look-alike, "healer," is a different word. That one comes from Old English "hælan," "to make whole," which is related to "whole" and "hale." The two drifted together in Middle English spelling, and by the time of early modern English, a healer was someone who cured, while the older sense of covering had faded from common use. The "helan" root also survives in "hell," from Old English "hel," which originally named a hidden or covered place, the underworld.