pommelyadj.

Etymology: < Anglo-Norman pomelé, pumelé, pomelei and Middle French pommelé marked with round spots, dappled (c1165 in Old French as pomelé ; French pommelé ) < pome , pomme pome n.¹ + -el -el suffix² + -é -y suffix⁵, perhaps after an unattested Frankish cognate of Old Saxon appulgrê , lit. ‘apple-grey’ (see dappled adj.). Compare Old French (rare) pumiele (c1215), French †pommelle (1615) little apple. Compare also post-classical Latin pomellus (1311 in a British source), pomellatus (from 1311 in British sources), Italian pomellato (see pomellated adj.), Spanish (rare) pomelado (1364 or earlier).Earlier currency of the word is perhaps implied in the name of a palfrey, Grisel Pomele (1347; compare grizzle n.¹), although it is unclear whether this is to be interpreted as reflecting the Middle English or the Anglo-Norman word. With pommely grey adj. at main sense compare Anglo-Norman and Old French ferrant pomelé (c1185; see ferraunt adj.), and also the name Grisel Pomele . The following probably shows Anglo-Norman ferrant pomelé , rather than earlier Middle English use:1342 in T. D. Whitaker Hist. Parish of Whalley (1872) 309 Idem, respondit de xxxv jumentis..quorum vj nigra..iij ferrantz pomele. The β forms are apparently either errors in the transmission of quot. a1530 or reflect a variant with loss of the final vowel. With the form pompyll (with excrescent -p- ) compare the β forms at pome n.¹