tallow

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English talgh, also talow and talȝ,^[2][3][4][5] recorded as talwȝ before 1325 and earlier in a surname, “Talghmongere” (1294).^[6][7] Its source is disputed.^[2][8] Many dictionaries take it as borrowed from Middle Low German talg, also talch,^{[2][8][9][10][4][11]} and Weekley notes that tallow was imported in quantity from the Baltic.^[12] The OED and the American Heritage Dictionary allow that it may instead continue an unrecorded Old English *tealh or *tealg-: the parallel of sallow, from sealh, points that way.^[2][8] Collins and Wiktionary compare tælg (“a dye”).^[13][1] It is cognate with Middle Dutch talch, Dutch talk, German Talg, Old Norse tólg and Danish talg,^[2][6][14] and the OED notes that the word is not found anywhere before the 13th century and that the variety of genders in Scandinavian suggests the Scandinavian forms were borrowed from Middle Low German.^[2][7] The common source is Proto-Germanic *talgaz,^{[1][15][8][7]} perhaps originally "firm, compact material", related to Gothic 𐍄𐌿𐌻𐌲𐌿𐍃 (tulgus, “firm, solid”).^[7][8][4] Barnhart and Köbler derive it from Proto-Indo-European *del- (“to drip”),^[6][15] and Klein relates it to Latin indulgeō (“to be indulgent”), the source of indulge.^[4] The OED calls its further etymology unknown.^[2] Johnson derived it from Danish.^[16]

Earliest recorded meaning

The fat of animals, used for candles and soap: c. 1350, in the ordinances of Winchester;^[2] Etymonline dates it to the mid 14th century,^[7] and Barnhart's first record is from before 1325.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Tallow was at first both the substance rendered for candles and the fat or suet of the animal itself; in Wyclif it also stood figuratively for richness, a sense now obsolete.^[2][9] A tallow-chandler, a maker of tallow candles, is recorded from about 1400.^[7] The verb, to smear with tallow and especially to grease a ship's bottom, appears in the 15th century;^[2][3][6] in the 18th century farmers used it of cattle forming tallow and of fattening them.^[2] In the 18th century the noun was extended to greasy substances from plants and minerals; after 1819 it could also stand for a tallow candle.^[2][9] Johnson (1755) defined it as "the grease or fat of an animal; suet", quoting Shakespeare's kitchen wench who would make a lamp.^[16]

Timeline

• before 1325 – the form talwȝ.^[6]
• c. 1350 – hard animal fat used for making candles and soap.^[2]
• before 1382 – the fat of an animal; suet.^[2][6]
• c. 1380 – figuratively, fatness, richness (obsolete).^[2]
• before 1450 – verb, to smear with tallow, especially a ship's bottom.^[2] Barnhart dates the verb to probably before 1400.^[6]
• before 1722 – verb, of cattle, to form or yield tallow.^[2]
• 1745 – a greasy substance obtained from plants or minerals.^[2]
• 1765 – verb, to fatten cattle.^[2]
• 1819 – a tallow candle.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A hard fat rendered mainly from the suet of sheep and cattle, used to make candles, soap and lubricants: The chandler melted the tallow in a large pot.^[13][3][9]
2. A similar greasy substance obtained from plants or minerals.^[9][2]
3. A tallow candle.^[9][2]

Verb

1. To smear or grease with tallow.^[13][3][2]
2. Of cattle, to form or yield tallow; also, to fatten cattle.^[3][2]

Word family

• tallowy
• untallowed
• tallow tree

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ 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
10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
15. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
16. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.