pall
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /pɔːl/
ipa: /pɔl/
ipa: /pɑl/
rhymes: -ɔːl
homophone: Paul
Forms: form: palls
form: palling
form: palled
form: palled
Etymology: Formed by aphesis from appal, appall (“(obsolete) to make pale; to weaken; to become weak; to lose flavour or become stale”), possibly under the influence of the figurative meaning of the unrelated noun pall.
Alternatively, the word may be derived from Middle English pallen (“to diminish, impair, weaken; to become faint; to lose spirit”), formed by aphesis from apallen (“to become or make faint or tired; to become indifferent; to fade or cause to fade away; to dim, weaken; to become stale; to be frightened; to frighten; to become pale”), from Old French apalir (“to become or cause to become pale”), possibly from Latin pallidus (“pale, pallid; pale with fright, frightened; mouldy, musty”), from palleō (“to be pale, turn pale; to be anxious or fearful; to fade or change colour”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pel-, *pelH- (“grey; pale”)) + -idus (suffix meaning ‘tending to’ forming adjectives).
Senses: examples: text: […] Reaſon and Reflection, which by repreſenting perpetually to the mind of Man the meanneſs of all ſenſual Gratifications, do, in great meaſure, blunt the edge of his keeneſt Deſires, and pall all his Enjoyments.
ref: 1706 August 30, Francis Atterbury, A Sermon Preach’d in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul; at the Funeral of Mr. Tho. Bennet, August 30. 1706, London: Printed and sold by H. Hills, […], published 1707, →OCLC, page 4:
glosses: To make vapid or insipid; to make lifeless or spiritless; to dull, to weaken.
examples: text: The liquor palls.
text: [T]he ale and byere haue palled, and were nought, by cause such ale and biere hathe taken wynde in spurgyng.
ref: [c. 1440, Galfrido Grammatico [i.e., Geoffrey the Grammarian], “Pallyd”, in Albert Way, editor, Promptorium parvulorum sive clericorum, dictionarius Anglo–Latinus princeps, […] [Storehouse for Children or Clerics, the First English–Latin Dictionary, […]] (Camden Society; LXXXIX) (in Middle English), London: […] Societatis Camdenensis [Camden Society], published 1865, →OCLC, footnote 2, page 380:
english: Storehouse for Children or Clerics, the First English–Latin Dictionary, […]
translation: Storehouse for Children or Clerics, the First English–Latin Dictionary, […]
text: Beauty ſoon grows familiar to the lover, / Fades in the eye, and palls upon the ſenſe.
ref: 1712, [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy (A Select Collection of English Plays; IV), Edinburgh: Printed for G. Hamilton, and J. Balfour, published 1755, →OCLC, act I, scene iv, page 15:
text: He interests himself in nothing: he scarcely cares to go beyond the garden-gate. Even Captain Glanders and Captain Strong pall upon him […]
ref: 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 26, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:
text: We are all becoming accustomed to adventure. It is beginning to pall on us. We suffered no casualties and there was no illness.
ref: 1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., →OCLC; republished as chapter VI, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, part I, number 11, New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, February 1927, →OCLC, book I, page 1006, column 1:
text: And one day the new port palled, like a book one has read too often, or a picture one has looked at over-long. And it was sheet home the royals and off to a new port, where there were new strange people, and streets laid another way, and other things in the merchants' booths, and a new language to pick up a phrase or two of.
ref: 1922, Donn Byrne [i.e., Brian Oswald Donn-Byrne], “The Wake at Ardee”, in The Wind Bloweth, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC, § 4, page 74:
glosses: To become dull, insipid, tasteless, or vapid; to lose life, spirit, strength, or taste.
Derived terms: per pall