c.1400, from Old French palor "paleness, whiteness" (12c.) and directly from Latin pallor, from pallere "be pale, turn pale," related to pallus "dark-colored, dusky," from PIE root *pel- (2) "pale; gray" (cognates: Sanskrit palitah "gray," panduh "whitish, pale;" Greek pelios "livid, dark," polios "gray;" Old English fealo "dull-colored, yellow, brown;" Welsh llwyd "gray").