pallor

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English pallour,^[2][3] partly borrowed from Old French palor (“paleness, whiteness”), also Anglo-Norman pallor and Middle French palour,^[4][2][5][6] and partly borrowed from Latin pallor (“paleness”),^[4][2][5] from palleō (“to be pale”) and the suffix -or.^[4][7][1] Klein relates the Latin verb to pullus (“dark-coloured, dusky”) and derives it from Proto-Indo-European *pel- (“dark-coloured, grey”),^[8] which Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary give as the root meaning "pale".^[2][6] Klein adds Greek words for livid and πολιός (poliós, “grey”), and English fallow in the sense of a brownish colour.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Paleness, of the brightness of gold in a translation of the Psalms: before 1400.^[4][3] Etymonline and Barnhart give about 1400.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

The Middle English word was used of the pale gleam of gold and of the dull look of sick eyes;^[3] Etymonline glosses it "paleness, dullness".^[2] The modern sense, an unhealthy paleness of the face, is the one the dictionaries now give.^[4][9][7] Collins and Dictionary.com date the word only to the 17th century,^[9][10] later than the Middle English records.^[4][3] Etymonline quotes a note on Catullus that paleness in the Mediterranean was a sickly, yellowish complexion rather than a lack of colour.^[2]

Timeline

• before 1400 – paleness, of gold.^[4][3]
• before 1500 – a dull pale look of the eyes, as a sign of illness.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. An unhealthy paleness, especially of the face: After the fever his cheeks kept a grey pallor.^[9][7][4]
2. Lack of colour in general; a wan look.^[7]

Related words

• pale
• pallid
• appall
• fallow

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f 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)
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House