Informal.[Romany phral, phal, from Sanskrit bhrātā, bhrātr-, brother.]
WORD HISTORY Pal, like buddy and chum, has an informal, thoroughly "American" ring to it. Its source, though, is rather unusual-Romany, the Indic language of the Gypsies. First recorded in English in the 17th century, pal was borrowed from a Romany word meaning "brother, comrade," which occurs as phal in the Romany spoken in England and phral in the Romany spoken in Europe. Gypsies speak an Indic language because they originally migrated to Europe from the border region between Iran and India. In other Indic languages we find related words meaning "brother," such as Hindustani bhāi and Prakrit bhāda or bhāyā; they all come from Sanskrit bhrātā, which in turn traces its ancestry to the same Indo-European word that our word brother does.
(1) (Programmable Array Logic) A type of programmable logic chip (PLD) that contains arrays of programmable AND gates and predefined OR gates. PALs are defined by their number of inputs and outputs; for example, a 22v10 PAL means 22 inputs and 10 outputs. The inputs are connected by fuses to logic circuits, which themselves are connected by fuses to the output lines. Often used for glue logic, the fuses are blown apart by a programmer device to create the custom configuration. See PLD and glue logic.
(2) (Phase Alternating Line) A color TV standard that was developed in Germany. It broadcasts 25 interlaced frames per second (50 half frames per second) at 625 lines of resolution. Brazil uses PAL M, which broadcasts 30 fps. PAL is used throughout Europe and China as well as in various African, South American and Middle Eastern countries. PAL's color signals are maintained automatically, and the TV set does not have a user-adjustable hue control. See NTSC and SECAM.
(3) (Paradox Application Language) A programming language used within Borland's Paradox relational database. Paradox is part of Corel's WordPerfect suite. See WordPerfect Office.
(4) "Parents are listening." See digispeak.
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noun
"Where have you been all this day, pal?" "Why, pal, what would you have me to do?" That conversation was recorded in Herefordshire, England, in a deposition in 1682. At least from that time, we have had pals in English.
Nowadays pal is a term of endearment, but it had a disreputable aura in earlier times. In the eighteenth century, an author explained, "when highwaymen rob in pairs, they say such a one was his or my pal."
The word comes from the Romani language spoken by the people who call themselves Romani or Rom, and who are called by others Gypsies, a name they don't like. There are about a million and a half speakers of Romani throughout the world. The Romani of western Europe are one of three great populations that began a nomadic exodus from India about a thousand years ago. There are also the Lomarven or Lom of Central Europe and the Domari or Dom of the Middle East and Eastern Europe. all speak versions of Romani, an Indo-European language of the Indo-Aryan branch related to the Hindi language of India.
In Romani, pal means "brother." Because the Romani have kept their language to themselves in the midst of other peoples, few other words from Romani have made their way into English. We do, however, have from Romani the blackjack known as a cosh (1869), the term cove (1567) to mean "fellow" or "man," and possibly the knife called a shiv (1674).
He is very imprudent, a dog ... You are his pal. That is enough for him.
— Jerome Klapka Jerome
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| pain, paedo, padre | |
| palarey, pale-face, palone |
| Look up pal or PAL in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
PAL or Pal may refer to:
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pal, ISO 639-2 for Middle Persian| This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. |
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Dansk (Danish)
n. - kammerat
v. intr. - være kammerat med
n. - Programmable Array Logic (programmerbar matrix), Phase Alternation Line (TV standard, fasealternerende linie)
Nederlands (Dutch)
makker, bevriend zijn/ worden
Français (French)
n. - copain
v. intr. - s'acoquiner avec, s'allier avec
n. - (abrév = phase alternative line) (TV) système PAL
Deutsch (German)
n. - Kumpel
v. - sich anfreunden
n. - (TV) PAL
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - φιλαράκι, σύντροφος
v. - κάνω φίλο
abbr. - τηλεοπτικό σύστημα PAL
Italiano (Italian)
compagno, fare amicizia
Português (Portuguese)
n. - chapa (m) (coloq.), amigo (m)
v. - fazer amizade
abbr. - paleontologia
Русский (Russian)
приятель, чувак, дружить
Español (Spanish)
n. - compañero, cuate, camarada, compinche, amigo, amigote
v. intr. - hacerse amigo o compinche
n. - Liga Atlética Policial, servicio de envío aéreo de paquetes del correo de Estados Unidos
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - kompis, polare
v. - hålla ihop med
abbr. - phase alternation line (TV system)
中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
朋友, 同志, 伙伴
朋友, 同志, 伙伴, 结成好友
中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 朋友, 同志, 夥伴
n. - 朋友, 同志, 夥伴
v. intr. - 結成好友, 結交, 為友
한국어 (Korean)
n. - 동아리, 친구, 공범
v. intr. - 친해지다, 한패가 되다
n. - 이용 가능한 주변 장치의 리스트(컴퓨터), 컬러TV의 양식
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) صديق (فعل) يتصادق, يتخادن (اختصار) مختصر : نظام التلفزيون الملون
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - חבר, ידיד, ברנש
v. intr. - התידד עם
n. - מערכת שידורי הטלביזיה הנפוצה באירופה
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