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PALL (1),
a cloak, mantle, archbishop's scarf, shroud. (L.) M.E. pal,
Layamon, 897, 1296; pl. pælles, id. 2368.—A.S. pæll, purple
cloth; we find pællas an sídan = purple cloths and silks, as a gloss to Lat.
purpuram et sericum in Ælfric's Colloquy (the Merchant); see Thorpe, Analecta,
p. 27.—Lat. palla, a mantle, loose dress, under garment, curtain; cf.
pallium, a coverlet, pall, curtain, toga. β. Origin uncertain;
perhaps for panula, pannula, dimin. form from panus, pannus, cloth.
We can hardly connect it with pellis, skin. Der. pall-i-ate, q.v.
PALL (2),
to become vapid, lose taste or spirit. (C.) M.E. pallen.
'Pallyn, as ale and drynke, Emorior;' Prompt. Parv.
Way, in the note on the passage, quotes from Lydgate's Order of Fools:
'Who forsakith wyne, and drynkithe ale pallid, Such foltisshe foolis, God
lete hem never the' [prosper]; Harl. MS. 2251, fol. 303. He also
cites from Palsgrave: 'I palle, as drinke or bloode dothe, by longe
standyng in a thynge, ie appallys. This drink wyll pall
(s’appallyra) if it stande vncouered all nyght. β. The word
presents great difficulty; I incline to the belief that Palsgrave has here made
an error in using the O.F. verb appallir as the equivalent of E. pall. This verb, like mod. F.
pâlir, seems to be only used with
respect to loss of colour or light. See apalir, palie, in Roquefort,
paslir, pallir in Cotgrave, and pâlir in Littré. Palsgrave may have
been thinking of M.E. appallen, which was a strange hybrid word, made by
prefixing the F. a- (= Lat. ad) to the word pall which we are now
discussing. This confusion appears in Chaucer, C. T. 13033, where we
find: 'But it were for an olde appalled wight' = except it were for an old
enfeebled creature; where 3 MSS. have the reading oldë palled in place of
olde
appalled; Six-text, B. 1292. It is clear that the sense here implies
loss of energy or vital power, and involves E. pall, not F. pâlir.
Gower speaks of a drink 'bitter as the galle, Which maketh a mannes herte palle,'
i.e. lose energy; C. A. iii. 13. Careful consideration of the use of
the word shews that it is of Celtic origin, but has been confused with F. pâlir
and E. pale.—W.
pallu, to fail, to cease, to neglect; cf. pall, loss of energy, miss, failure;
pallder, fallibility, palliant, failure, neglect. Allied to Corn.
palch, weak, sickly, amending poorly. γ. As no W. word begins with
sp, we may readily admit a loss of initial s, and connect pall with Irish
spaillead, a check, abuse, spailleadh, a fall, Gk. σφάλλειν, to make to totter,
σφάλλεσθαι, to stumble, stagger, fall, fail. The
s is also lost in
Lat. fallere (whence E. fail), and in E. fall. δ. In fact
pall is a
mere doublet of fail or fall; all being from ✔SPAL, to fall, totter; cf. Skt.
sphal, sphul, to tremble, sphálaya, to crush (lit. to fell). The Skt.
phalgu, pithless, sapless, weak, is a related word, from the same
root. Der. ap-pal,
q.v. See Addenda. [※]
ADDENDA
PALL (2), to become
vapid. Not (C.), but (F.,—L.).
This account requires much correction; see note on Appal.
Palsgrave is right. Either pall is from O.F. paslir, pallir
(F. pâlir), to grow wan or pale; or it is a shortened form of appal,
which is from the same source with the mere addition of the prefix a-
(Lat. ad).
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