Apedia

Pallium Pall Cloth Pawl Noun A Cloth Velvet Spreading

Pall refers to a funerary cloth, a coffin, or anything that casts a shadow or gloom, with specific ecclesiastical uses as well.

Pall can refer to a cloth spread over a coffin or tomb, a coffin itself, or anything that covers or shrouds, especially with darkness or gloom. It can also have ecclesiastical meanings related to altar cloths or vestments.

Back pall /PAWL/
Front noun
1. A cloth, often of velvet, for spreading over a coffin, bier, or tomb.
2. A coffin.
3. Anything that covers, shrouds, or overspreads, especially with darkness or gloom.
4. Ecclesiastical. Pallium (i.e. an altar cloth or a linen cloth or a square cloth-covered piece of cardboard used to cover a chalice).

[before 900; Middle English; Old English pæll pope's pallium < Latin pallium cloak]

"A spate of House retirements in the South is casting a pall over Dems' 2010 chances." - Buck Up, Democrats, Benjamin Sarlin, January 26, 2010

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