gall

English has three nouns spelled gall: bile, a sore made by chafing, and a growth on a plant.^[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

• UK: /ɡɔːl/^[4]

gall¹ bile; impudence

Etymology

The word for bile is inherited from Middle English galle,^[5] inherited from Old English gealla, Anglian galla,^[2][3][5][6] inherited from Proto-Germanic *gallǭ.^[3][7][8] It is cognate with Old Saxon galla, Old High German galla, German Galle, Dutch gal and Old Norse gall.^[2][9][10] Outside Germanic it is related to Latin fel (“bile”) and Ancient Greek χολή (kholḗ, “bile”), χόλος (khólos, “bile, anger”),^{[2][9][11][1]} from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰel- (“to shine”), whose derivatives denote yellow and green, so that bile was named from its colour; the same root gave yellow, gold and yolk.^{[3][12][13][11]} The OED calls this link with yellow only possible.^[9] Hoad, Ayto and Collins take the Middle English word partly from the Old Norse word.^[10][12][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

Bile, the secretion of the liver: before 830, in Old English,^[2][9] first in the Vespasian Psalter.^[9] In Middle English galle meant the gall bladder as well (c. 1175, in the Ormulum).^[9][5]

Semantic evolution

Because bile was proverbially bitter, gall came to stand for bitterness of spirit and rancour from about 1175;^[9][3] the old medical theory of the humours placed such feelings in the gall.^[3][9] From 1390 it also meant the spirit to resent an injury, and to break one's gall was to cow someone; both are obsolete.^[9] Biblical phrases kept the literal sense in view from before 1382,^[9] and the Old English Gospels already tell of wine mixed with gall.^[6] The informal American sense, impudent boldness, is first recorded in 1882 in the Denver Republican,^[9][15][2] and Barnhart derives it from the older figurative sense.^[2] Johnson (1755) still defined the word as bile, "an animal juice remarkable for its supposed bitterness".^[16]

Timeline

• before 830 – bile, in the Anglian form galla.^[2][9]
• c. 1175 – the gall bladder; bitterness of spirit, rancour.^[9]
• 1340 – poison, venom (obsolete by 1450).^[9][17]
• 1390 – spirit to resent an injury (obsolete by 1680).^[9][17]
• 1567 – gall of the earth, the lesser centaury, named for its bitterness.^[9]
• 1676 – the compound gall bladder.^[2]
• 1882 – impudence, effrontery, in American slang.^[9][15][2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Bold, impudent self-assurance; nerve or cheek: She had the gall to ask for a raise on her first day.^[14][1]
2. Bitterness of feeling; rancour.^[14][1]
3. Something bitter to endure.^[14][1]
4. Bile, especially that of animals such as the ox, used in medicine and the arts.^[1][9]
5. (archaic) The gallbladder.^[14][1]

Word family

• gallbladder
• gallstone

gall² sore from chafing; to chafe, vex

Etymology

The word for the sore is inherited from Middle English galle,^[5][2] inherited from Old English gealla (“painful swelling, sore spot on a horse”),^[3][2][6] probably borrowed from Latin galla (“oak-gall, lump on a plant”).^{[3][2][1][11]} The American Heritage Dictionary calls the Latin source only possible,^[13] and Etymonline allows that it may come from, or have been influenced by, gall "bile", as a "poison sore".^[3] The OED thinks the word probably identical with the word for bile, since venom passes easily into an envenomed sore, and notes that the same word for a gall-nut was used in the Romance languages for a swelling on a horse's fetlock.^[9] Orel instead reconstructs a separate Proto-Germanic *gallô, with Old Norse galli (“fault, flaw”) and Middle Low German galle (“sore spot on the skin”), and relates it to Lithuanian žalà (“harm, damage”).^[7] The Shorter Oxford and Hoad take the later English forms from the Middle Low German word or from Middle Dutch galle.^[18][10][19] The verb is formed from the noun,^[1][2][3] according to the OED first as a back-formation from the adjective galled, perhaps influenced by Old French galler (“to rub, scratch”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A painful swelling or blister, especially on a horse: about 1000, in Old English medical texts.^[2][9] In Middle English Chaucer used it in clawe us on the galle, to touch someone on a sore spot (about 1395).^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

In later use the sore was understood as one made by rubbing or chafing, probably under the influence of the verb.^[9] The verb, first "to have sores, be sore" from the early 14th century,^[3][2] meant "to make sore by chafing" from about 1440.^[9][3] Soldiers' language gave it the sense "to harass with shot or arrows" (1548);^[9][2] from 1573 it was used of vexing someone's mind,^[9][3][2] the sense behind the adjective galling (1583).^[2] A bare patch in a field or coppice was a gall from 1573, and in the southern United States a spot where the soil has been washed away.^[9][3] In Scots and English dialects the noun still meant a sore or an abraded spot in the late 19th century, and in Scotland also a fault in a rock stratum.^[20][9]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – a painful swelling or sore, especially on a horse.^[2][9]
• early 14th century – verb, to have sores, be sore.^[3][2]
• c. 1386 – to claw on the gall, to touch on a sore point (obsolete by 1640).^[9]
• c. 1440 – verb, to make sore by chafing.^[9]
• 1548 – verb, to harass with shot or arrows.^[9][2]
• 1573 – verb, to vex or irritate; noun, a bare spot in a field.^[9][2]
• 1591 – noun, something galling, a state of irritation.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A skin sore caused by chafing, especially on a horse's back from a saddle or harness.^[1][14]
2. Something that causes irritation, or a state of irritation.^[1][9]
3. A bare or worn spot, as in a field.^[9][1]

Verb

1. To make sore by rubbing; to chafe: The new boots galled his heels.^[1][14]
2. To vex or irritate: It galled her to lose to her younger brother.^[1][14]
3. To harass with gunfire or arrows.^[1][9]
4. To become sore or worn by rubbing.^[1][9]

Word family

• windgall
• galling

gall³ growth on a plant

Etymology

The word for the plant growth is inherited from Middle English galle,^[5][2] borrowed from Old French galle,^{[2][9][18][1]} from Latin galla (“oak-apple, gall-nut”).^{[9][3][2][18]} The Anglo-Norman galle is recorded from the mid-13th century, both for the oak-apple and for a scabby skin disease.^[21] Etymonline calls the Latin word of uncertain origin;^[3] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster compare Ancient Greek γάγγλιον (gánglion, “swelling, tumour”) and a Sanskrit word for a round lump,^[2][1] and Klein traces it to Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“to form into a ball”), the root he also gives for globe.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

A growth on a tree, especially the oak: 1398, in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomew's De Proprietatibus Rerum.^[9][2] The Middle English Dictionary has it a little earlier in a herbal by Daniel, which calls galla the fruit of the oak.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Galls were gathered for medicines, inks and dyes,^[3] and the OED notes that oak-galls were much used in making ink.^[9] From this use came a verb gall, to soak in a decoction of galls (1581).^[9][18] Galls are now known to be caused by insects, fungi or bacteria,^[1][18] and Merriam-Webster also has a verb meaning to cause galls to form on a plant.^[1]

Timeline

• 1398 – a growth on the oak or another tree.^[9][2]
• 1581 – verb, to soak with a decoction of galls.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. An abnormal swelling on a plant caused by insects, fungi or bacteria, such as the oak apple.^[1][18][14]

Verb

1. To cause galls to form on a plant, or to form galls.^[1]

Word family

• gallnut
• nutgall
• gallfly

Related words

• bile
• choler
• yellow
• gold
• yolk
• ganglion
• globe

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
5. ^ a b c d e f g Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
6. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
7. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
8. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
13. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
14. ^ a b c d e f g h i Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
18. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
19. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
20. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
21. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)