pallens

Forms

pallēns, genitive pallentis; third-declension one-termination adjective^[1][2]

Etymology

Used as an adjective, it is the present participle from Latin palleō (“to be pale”).^[1][2] De Vaan connects palleō with Proto-Italic *palwo- (“pale, grey”) and compares Lithuanian pal̃vas (“light yellow, straw-coloured”) and Old High German falo (“faded”); since those point to *polwo-, which would not explain the Latin ⟨a⟩, he suggests that the word may have been borrowed into the European languages.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lucretius speaks of strangely pale images of the dead;^[1][4] Köbler's first author is the Tibullan collection.^[1][4]

Semantic evolution

It describes people pale or wan from illness, death or emotion, and especially the pale dwellers of the underworld.^[1] It also describes things that make one pale, as Tacitus' fame that brings pallor.^[1] Of other things it is pale-coloured, as Lucan's pale bones and the poet Macer's pale saffron, and of places or light dim: Virgil says that the sun never scatters the pale shadows of the far north.^[1] Church Latin glosses it pale in colour, pallid.^[5]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of pale images of the dead.^[1][4]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of pale shadows.^[1][4]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus of fame that makes one pale.^[1][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Pale, wan, of people; of the dead in the underworld; causing paleness.^[1][5]
2. Pale-coloured, pallid; of plants, pale green or yellow.^[1]
3. Of places or light, dim, devoid of brightness.^[1]

Related words

• palleō
• pallidus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson