Health

Old English hælth — wholeness, a being whole. From hāl — whole, uninjured. Related to whole, heal, and holy — all from the same root. Health was originally about wholeness, not just the absence of disease.

The WHO's 1948 definition — 'a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being' — was radical in its scope. In American political life, health is debated primarily as a market commodity or as a government program. The original sense of wholeness rarely enters the policy conversation.