means The main watertight body of a ship or boat — or, separately, the dry outer covering of a seed or fruit, like the leafy cap on a strawberry.

from From Old English 'hulu,' a husk or pod — something that covers or encloses. The ship sense and the seed sense are likely the same word grown apart: both are the outer shell that holds what matters inside. It's probably related to the verb 'to hele' (to cover or conceal), and a distant cousin of 'hall' and 'hell' in the old Germanic sense of a covered, enclosed place.