Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “palette” come from?

Palette comes from Old French palete, meaning a small shovel or blade used for mixing paints and pigments.

palette (English): A thin board on which a painter lays and mixes...

Definitions

  1. A thin board on which a painter lays and mixes...

Ancestry of “palette”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Frenchpalettepalette
2Frenchpâlepale
3Old Frenchpalepale, whitish or having little color
4Latinpalliduspale, pallid, wan; that makes or causes a pale...
5Latin-idustending to
6Proto-Italic*-iðos—

Words derived from “palette”

  • subpalette
  • paletted
  • palettelike
  • palettise
  • palettize
  • palettization
  • minipalette
Every word from Proto-Italic *-iðos →