fallow

English

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈfæləʊ/
  • Audio (Southern England):(file)
  • (US) enPR: fălʹō, IPA(key): /ˈfæloʊ/
  • Rhymes: -æləʊ

Etymology 1

From Middle English falwe, from Old English fealh, fealg (“fallow land”), from Proto-West Germanic *falgu (compare Saterland Frisian Falge, West Frisian falig, felling, Dutch valg, German Felge), from Proto-Indo-European *polḱéh₂ (“arable land”) (compare Gaulish olca, Russian полоса́ (polosá)).

Noun

fallow (countable and uncountable, plural fallows)

  1. (agriculture, uncountable) Ground ploughed and harrowed but left unseeded for one year.
  2. (agriculture, uncountable) Uncultivated land.
  3. The ploughing or tilling of land, without sowing it for a season.
    • 1832, Sir John Sinclair, The Code of Agriculture:
      By a complete summer fallow, land is rendered tender and mellow. The fallow gives it a better tilth than can be given by a fallow crop.
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Translations to be checked

Adjective

fallow (comparative more fallow, superlative most fallow)

  1. (of agricultural land) Ploughed but left unseeded for more than one planting season.
  2. (of agricultural land) Left unworked and uncropped for some amount of time.
  3. (figurative) Inactive; undeveloped.
    a fallow period in one's career
    • 1990, Wayne Jancik, The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders, →ISBN, page 316:
      After two more homeland hits and a fallow two years, Pickettywitch was parked and junked.
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Etymology 2

From Middle English falowen, falwen, from Old English fealgian (“to fallow; break up land”), from Proto-West Germanic *falgōn (“to fallow”). Cognate with Dutch valgen (“to plow lightly; fallow”), German Low German falgen (“to till; dig a hole”).

Verb

fallow (third-person singular simple present fallows, present participle fallowing, simple past and past participle fallowed)

  1. (transitive) To make land fallow for agricultural purposes.
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Etymology 3

From Middle English falwe, from Old English fealu, from Proto-West Germanic *falu, from Proto-Germanic *falwaz (compare West Frisian feal, Dutch vaal, German falb, fahl, French fauve), from Proto-Indo-European *polwos (compare Lithuanian pal̃vas (“sallow, wan”), Russian поло́вый (polóvyj, “wan, light yellow”), Serbo-Croatian plâv (“blond, blue”), Ancient Greek πολιός (poliós, “grey”)), from Proto-Indo-European *pelH- (“pale, gray”).

Adjective

fallow (comparative more fallow, superlative most fallow)

  2. Of a pale red or yellow, light brown; dun.
    a fallow deer or greyhound
    fallow:  
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References

Middle English

Noun

fallow

  1. (Early Scots) alternative form of felawe

Middle Scots

Alternative forms

Etymology

Inherited from Early Scots falow, from Old English fēolaga, from Old Norse félagi.[1]

The development of /ɛl/ to /al/ before -ow is apparently regular (compare ȝallow); in some varieties, this further develops to /ɔl/ due to the preceding /f/.[2] Therefore the form fellow must represent influence from Early Modern English.[3]

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈfalɔʊ̯/, /ˈfɔlɔʊ̯/

Noun

fallow (plural fallowis)

  1. A partner, companion, or associate; one linked with oneself:
    1. A member of an association or gild.
    2. (rare) An equal or peer.
    3. (rare) A consort; the spouse of a monarch.
  2. Any male individual (especially of low status)
  3. A counterpart, equivalent, or match.

Descendants

  • Scots: fallae, fallow, falla, filla, fulla

References

  1. ^ “fallow, falow, n.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, reproduced from William A[lexander] Craigie, A[dam] J[ack] Aitken [et al.], editors, A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue: […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1931–2002, →OCLC.
  2. ^ Aitken, A[dam] J., Macafee, Caroline, editors (2002), “Part One: Vowel Phonology of Scots to 1375”, in The Older Scots Vowels: A History of the Stressed Vowels of Older Scots from the Beginnings to the Eighteenth Century (Scottish Text Society, Fifth Series; 1), Edinburgh: Scottish Text Society, →ISBN, →OCLC, § 14.18, page 86.
  3. ^ “fellow, n.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, reproduced from William A[lexander] Craigie, A[dam] J[ack] Aitken [et al.], editors, A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue: […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1931–2002, →OCLC.
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