fallow
pronunciation
How to pronounce fallow in British English:
UK [ˈfæləʊ]
How to pronounce fallow in American English:
US [ˈfæloʊ]
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- Noun:
- cultivated land that is not seeded for one or more growing seasons
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- Adjective:
- left unplowed and unseeded during a growing season
- undeveloped but potentially useful
Word Origin
- fallow
- fallow: English has two words fallow, both of considerable antiquity. Fallow ‘uncultivated’ [OE] originally meant ‘ploughed land’. Its present-day adjectival meaning ‘ploughed but not sown’ or, more broadly, just ‘uncultivated’, developed in the 15th century. Fallow ‘pale yellowish-brown’ [OE] (now used only in fallow deer) comes via Germanic *falwaz from Indo- European *polwos, a derivative of the base *pol-, *pel-, which also produced English appal [14] (originally ‘grow pale’), pale, and pallid.Its Germanic relatives include German fahl ‘pale, fawn’ and falb ‘pale yellow’. (Germanic *falwaz, incidentally, was the ancestor of French fauve ‘wild animal’, source of the term fauvism [20] applied to an early 20th-century European art movement that favoured simplified forms and bold colours.)=> appal, pale, pallid
- fallow (n.)
- c. 1300, from Old English fealh "fallow land," from Proto-Germanic *falgo (cognates: Old High German felga "harrow," German Felge "plowed-up fallow land," East Frisian falge "fallow," falgen "to break up ground"), perhaps from a derivation of PIE root *pel- (3) "to turn, fold." Assimilated since Old English to fallow (adj.), according to OED probably because of the color of plowed earth. Originally "plowed land," then "land plowed but not planted" (1520s). As an adjective, from late 14c.
- fallow (adj.)
- "pale yellow, brownish yellow," Old English fealu "reddish yellow, yellowish-brown, tawny, dusk-colored" (of flame, birds' feet, a horse, withered grass or leaves, waters, roads), from Proto-Germanic *falwa- (cognates: Old Saxon falu, Old Norse fölr, Middle Dutch valu, Dutch vaal, Old High German falo, German falb), from PIE *pal-wo- "dark-colored, gray" (cognates: Old Church Slavonic plavu, Lithuanian palvas "sallow;" Greek polios "gray" (of hair, wolves, waves), Sanskrit palitah, Welsh llwyd "gray;" Latin pallere "to be pale"), suffixed form of root *pel- (2) "pale" (see pallor). It also forms the root of words for "pigeon" in Greek (peleia), Latin (palumbes), and Old Prussian (poalis). Related: Fallow-deer.
Synonym
Example
- 1. It had been lying fallow for a year .
- 2. Then I realise my madness is like the soil lying fallow .
- 3. Many of the new owners have neither the skills nor the funds to run big farms , so fertile land often lies fallow .
- 4. Company lies fallow for more months .
- 5. Farmers know that soil needs rest , so they rotate their crops and systematically leave a portion of their land fallow .