pallet

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A flat wooden platform on which goods are stacked for storing or moving.

   The forklift lifted a pallet of boxes onto the truck.

2. 2
   noun

   A simple bed or mattress, often made of straw.

   The traveller slept on a thin pallet on the floor.

Simplified etymology

Pallet originally meant a flat handled blade used for shaping clay or plaster. It comes from French palette, “little blade,” ultimately from Latin pala, “spade”; the platform used by forklift trucks acquired the name in the early 20th century. The related artist’s palette was borrowed directly from French in the early 17th century.

Said to be from Middle English *palet, from Middle French *palet, from Middle French pal (“pale”), ultimately from Latin palla (“a strip of cloth”).

Topics

External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary