Etymograph

English

pelt

Pelt comes from Middle English pelt ‘skin of a sheep, especially without the wool’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *pel-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*pel-root as named · steps between not traced
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500pelt‘skin of a sheep, especially without the wool’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1596pelt

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*pel-root as named · steps between not traced
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500pelt‘skin of a sheep, especially without the wool’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1596pelt

Earliest quotation: 1596, Thomas Nashe, Dialogus: “A gentleman (long agoe) lent him an old velvet…”

The story

Also compare Old Norse feldr (‘pelt’).

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *pel-

film, simple, simply, push, felt, powder, complain, fold, pulse, filter, pillow, flaw, repeal, pollen, palate, compulsive, palpable, palladium, palatable, pall, wallow, polemic, expel, propel, repel, tuple, pollinate, palatal, muffle, peloton, apoplexy, pulver, palp, pillion, interpolate, peplum, 63 more

Another origin of pelt

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*pel-‘to beat’uncertain
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*pelnōuncertain
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpellō‘to drive, impel, propel, push’uncertain
  4. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEpultāre‘to beat, knock, strike’uncertain
  5. Late Latinc. 200–600 CE*pultiareuncertain
  6. Old Englishc. 450–1150*pyltanuncertain
  7. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500pilten‘to push, thrust’uncertain
  8. Middle English, derivedc. 1150–1500peltuncertain
  9. Englishtodaypelt

The verb is derived from Late Middle English pelt, pelte; further origin uncertain, probably a variant of Late Middle English pilten (‘to push, thrust; to strike; to cast down, humble; to incite, induce; to place, put; to extend, reach forward with’) [and other forms], possibly from Old English *pyltan, from Late Latin *pultiare, from Latin pultāre (‘to beat, knock, strike’), the frequentative of pellere, the present active infinitive of pellō (‘to drive, impel, propel, push; to hurl; to banish, eject, expel, thrust out; to beat, strike; to set in motion’), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pel- (‘to beat; to drive, push’).uncertain The source flags this step as uncertain. The noun is derived from the verb.

Today it means

noun The skin of an animal with the hair or wool on; either a raw or undressed hide, or a skin preserved with the hair or wool on it (sometimes worn as a garment with minimal modification).

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *pel- / pelt

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