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Added 9 October 2026

pall

/pɔːl/ noun

Latin root: pallium Wiktionary

noun Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about pall at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

Senses relating to cloth. Fine cloth, especially purple cloth used for robes. A heavy cloth laid over a coffin or tomb; a shroud laid over a corpse. A piece of cardboard, covered with linen and embroidered on one side, used to cover the chalice during the Eucharist. A cloth used for various purposes on the altar in a church, such as a corporal (“cloth on which elements of the Eucharist are placed”) or frontal (“drapery covering the front of an altar”).
Fine cloth, especially purple cloth used for robes.
A heavy cloth laid over a coffin or tomb; a shroud laid over a corpse.

verb

To cloak or cover with, or as if with, a pall.

verb

To make vapid or insipid; to make lifeless or spiritless; to dull, to weaken.
To become dull, insipid, tasteless, or vapid; to lose life, spirit, strength, or taste.
The liquor palls.

noun

A feeling of nausea caused by disgust or overindulgence.

Origin

From Middle English pal, palle, from Old English pæl, pæll, from Old French paile and Latin pallium (“cloak; covering”) (and thus a doublet of pallium), probably from palla (“piece of cloth worn as apparel”) (possibly from Proto-Indo-European *pel- (“to cover, wrap; hide, skin; cloth”)) + -ium (suffix forming abstract nouns).

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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