palleo

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈpal.le.oː]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈpal.le.o]^[1]

Forms

palleō (present infinitive pallēre, perfect active palluī); second conjugation, no passive, no supine stem^[1]

Etymology

It is a stative verb from Proto-Italic *palwo- (“pale, grey”).^[2] Cognate with Lithuanian pal̃vas (“light yellow”), Russian половый (polóvyj, “pale yellow”), Old Norse fǫlr (“pale”) and Old High German falo (“faded”), all from *polu̯o-, which however would not explain Latin /a/.^[2] Nussbaum separates the pale colour *pallo- from the dark *pollo- of pullus.^[2] De Vaan considers a European loanword *palu̯o- “pale, grey”.^[2] The OLD and Lewis and Short compare Sanskrit पलित (palitá, “grey”) and Ancient Greek πελιτνός (pelitnós, “livid”), and the TLL notes that the double /l/ is not explained.^[3][4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus, whose character is told “you are terribly pale”.^[2][3] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.^[6]

Semantic evolution

It meant to be pale or bloodless from illness or strong emotion, as Cicero's man who sweats and turns pale and Ovid's veins pale from loss of blood, and so to be afraid, and transitively to fear.^[3][4][7] It also meant to be pale with care or ambition, or with toil at work, so that transitively it meant to toil over a study.^[7] Of colour it meant to be yellowish or greenish, as Columella's violet that is pale on the ground, and of light to be dim or faint.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus tells a character he is pale.^[3][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero describes a man sweating and pale.^[4][6]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses it of the colour of violets.^[3][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To be pale, bloodless (from illness or emotion).^[3]
2. To be pale with fear, (transitive) to fear.^[7]
3. To have a pale yellowish or greenish colour.^[3]
4. (Of light) to be dim, faint.^[3]

Word family

• pallidus
• pallor
• pallēscō
• pallēns

Related words

• pallidulus
• pullus
• English pale
• English pallor

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.