hail, hale

[Arnold Zwicky]

MWDEU has an entry for these spellings, which says:
   Confusion about which of these spellings should be used in a
particular context one would expect to be common, but we have
relatively little evidence of it in our files. Perhaps proofreaders
and copy editors have especially sharp eyes when it comes to _hail_
and _hale_.
.....

that was 1989. now we have access to writing that hasn't been past the
eyes of proofreaders and copy editors, and it turns out that spelling
confusions are fairly common. the following are all attested:

HALE for HAIL:
   hale a cab
   hale from 'come from'
   rain and hale
   hale-fellow-well-met
   hale, hale, the gang's all here
     [many hits for references to people named Hale, but some just for
the song]

HAIL for HALE:
   hail and hearty
   hail into court
    [this one's in the ecdb, and in Brians]

arnold

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