Did Halloween originally mean “hallowed evening”?

Did All Hallow's originally mean “all-holy [evening]”?

Was Hallows—used by some as a spellable, pronounceable alternative to the problematic Irish “Samhain”—an old pagan name for the holiday?

No, no, and no.

Hálig (HAH-lee-yeh) was the Old English adjective that meant—and eventually became—“holy”. Substantivized—i.e. made into a noun—this became hálga, a masculine noun denoting a holy person or thing. After Christianization, it became the standard word for a saint: i.e. a holy person. Until 1066, this word—which would become our hallow—was the standard English word meaning “saint.”

(The fact that we now use the French word instead of the native English one tells its own story. The Church has always favored the conqueror over the conquered.)

So Halloween didn't originally mean “hallowed evening”, nor All Hallow's "all-holy", but rather the "Saints' Eve" and "All Saints' [Eve]" respectively.

In effect, they're worn-down forms of old names for a Christian holiday.

Does it matter?

There was a time in my pagan career when my answer to this question would have been “absolutely.”

Now, I'm not so sure.

Me, I cleave to Samhain, and if in this I seem to you to commit the dread secular sin of cultural appropriation, then so be it. 1400 years ago, the Hwicce—the original (so say some) tribe of Witches—were already a mixed bag of Celt and Anglo-Saxon both genetically and culturally, and we're still a mixed and mongrel lot today. What of it?

Is November Eve a hallowed evening? You bet. Could we even call it All-Holy? Seems fair to me.

If I say Samhain and you say Hallows, so what? We still understand one another.

We are the pagans, the People of Many.

We understand that diversity only makes us richer.