The question itself contains the German word, as heil is already a German word. In German, heil is an adjective and interjection with several related meanings that do not have a single exact English equivalent. As an adjective, heil means whole, intact, uninjured, safe, or healed, as in heil nach Hause kommen meaning to come home safe and sound. It can also mean saved or redeemed in a religious context. As an interjection or greeting, it historically meant hail or may you be blessed with health and prosperity, similar to the English hail in Hail Caesar. The phrase heil Hitler literally translated as hail Hitler or health to Hitler, though in Nazi usage it functioned as a salute meaning long live Hitler. The related noun Heil means salvation, welfare, or well-being, and das Heil means salvation in a religious sense. The verb heilen means to heal or to cure. Because of its strong association with the Nazi regime and the phrases Sieg Heil and Heil Hitler used from 1933 to 1945, the use of heil as a greeting is now extremely taboo in modern Germany and is prohibited in certain contexts under German law when used with Nazi connotations. Today Germans use other greetings like hallo, guten Tag, or servus, and the word heil appears mainly in compounds like heilig meaning holy and in historical contexts.
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