Etymology

Hail Mary

Today it means: A prayer, of established or conventional wording, calling for the intercession of the Virgin Mary. Full definition →

Middle English Heil Marie
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The story

  1. Middle English · inherited fromHeil Marie
  2. English todayHail Mary

From Middle English Heil Marie. The extended figurative sense alludes to the notion of saying a prayer that the action will succeed.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.