Etymology

sallow

S1A1L1L1O1W4

Today it means: Of an unhealthy pale colour. Full definition →

Middle English salowe ← Old English salu ← Proto-West Germanic *salu
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sallow · adjective, verb1

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*selH-
  2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*salwaz
  3. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*salu
  4. Old English · inherited fromsalu
  5. Middle English · inherited fromsalowe
  6. English todaysallow

From Middle English salowe, from Old English salu, from Proto-West Germanic *salu, from Proto-Germanic *salwaz, from Proto-Indo-European *selH-. See also Dutch zaluw, dialectal German sal; also Irish salach (“dirty”), Welsh halog, Latin salīva, Russian соло́вый (solóvyj, “cream-colored”), and - through Frankish - French sale.

sallow · noun2

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*sh₂lk-
  2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*salhaz
  3. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*salh
  4. Old English · inherited fromsealh
  5. Middle English · inherited fromsalow
  6. English todaysallow

From Middle English salow, salwe, from Old English sealh, from Proto-West Germanic *salh, from Proto-Germanic *salhaz, masculine variant of *salhō, *salhijǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *sh₂lk-, *sh₂lik-. See also Low German Sal, Saal; Swedish sälg; also Welsh helyg, Latin salix (and also a doublet of the thence derived English borrowing salix) probably originally a borrowing from some other language.

Words from the same roots

Old Englishsealh all →

saleSalfordSelwoodSalkeldSawdon

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.