A friend; a chum.
intr.v., palled, pal·ling, pals.To associate as friends or chums. Often used with around.
[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.
