An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Fell

by Friedrich Kluge

Fell, neuter, ‘hide, skin, fur,’ from Middle High German vël(ll), Old High German fël(ll), ‘human skin, hide’; compare Gothic fill, neuter, in þrûts-fill, ‘leprosy,’ faurafilli, ‘foreskin’; Old Icelandic fjall, ‘skin, hide,’ in compounds, Anglo-Saxon fëll, neuter, ‘skin, hide,’ English fell, Dutch vel. Common to Teutonic originally, but universal in the wider sense of ‘skin,’ both of men and animals. Teutonic fella- from pre-Teutonic pello- or pelno-; compare Latin pellis, Greek πέλλα, ‘hide, leather,’ ἄπελλος, neuter, ‘(skinless) unhealed wound,’ ἐρυσίπελας, ‘erysipelas, St. Anthony's fire,’ ἐπίπλοος, ‘caul of the entrails,’ the latter for ἐπίπλοϝος, akin to Lithuanian plėvė, ‘caul, skin’; also akin to Anglo-Saxon filmen, ‘membrane, foreskin,’ English film; likewise Greek πέλμα, ‘sole of the foot or shoe,’ and perhaps πέπλος, ‘garment,’ as a reduplicated form (πέ-πλ-ος, root πελ).