gall

\ \ Gall ‘bile’ [12], and by metaphorical extension ‘bitterness’ and ‘effrontery’, was borrowed from Old Norse gall. It gets its name ultimately from its colour, for its prehistoric Germanic ancestor *gallam or *gallon (which also produced German galle and Dutch gal) goes back to Indo-European *ghol-, *ghel-, which also gave English gold, jaundice, yellow, and yolk. The relationship of the two other English words gall (‘skin sore’ [14], whence the verbal use ‘exasperate’, and ‘plant swelling’ [14]) to gall ‘bile’ and to each other is not clear. The immediate source of ‘skin sore’ was Middle Low German galle ‘sore’, but ‘bile’ could easily have led via ‘astringent substance’ to ‘sore place’, and it may be that ultimately the Middle Low German word is connected with gall ‘bile’. Gall ‘plant swelling’ has been traced back via Old French galle to Latin galla ‘plant gall’, but some later descendants of this were used for ‘swelling on an animal’s leg’, further adding to the confusion.

\ \ Cf.⇒ GOLD, JAUNDICE, YELLOW, YOLK