fallow

noun
/ˈfæləʊ/UK/ˈfæloʊ/US

Etymology

[Alt: A photograph of a light brown deer.] 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”).

  1. derived from *pelH- — “pale, gray
  2. inherited from *polwos
  3. inherited from *falwaz
  4. inherited from *falu
  5. inherited from fealu
  6. inherited from falwe

Definitions

  1. Ground ploughed and harrowed but left unseeded for one year.

  2. Uncultivated land.

  3. The ploughing or tilling of land, without sowing it for a season.

    • 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.
  4. + 5 more definitions
    1. Ploughed but left unseeded for more than one planting season.

    2. Left unworked and uncropped for some amount of time.

    3. Inactive

      Inactive; undeveloped.

      • a fallow period in one's career
      • After two more homeland hits and a fallow two years, Pickettywitch was parked and junked.
    4. To make land fallow for agricultural purposes.

    5. Of a pale red or yellow, light brown

      Of a pale red or yellow, light brown; dun.

      • a fallow deer or greyhound
      • How does your fallow greyhound, sir?

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for fallow. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA