fallow

Meaning

Noun

1. (uncountable) Ground ploughed and harrowed but left unseeded for one year.
2. (uncountable) Uncultivated land.
3. (countable, uncountable) The ploughing or tilling of land, without sowing it for a season.

Adj

1. Ploughed but left unseeded for more than one planting season.
2. Left unworked and uncropped for some amount of time.
3. (figuratively) Inactive; undeveloped.

Verb

To make land fallow for agricultural purposes.

Adj

Of a pale red or yellow, light brown; dun.

Synonyms

uncultivated

fallow land

let lie fallow

unplowed

wasteland

Oldfield

buff

resting

set-aside

straw coloured

tawny

uncultivated land

unproductive

unsown

untilled

unused

yellowish

fallow ground

fallowing

straw colored

unploughed

waste

unsowed

bare fallow

green fallow

ploughed land

plowed land

aborted

unfarmed land

dark

idle

inactive

inert

lay

relaxation

Translations

jachère

barbecho

Brache

maggese

friche

guaret

brach

incolto

pousio

braakland

en friche

brachliegend

Brachland

أرض مستريحة

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈfæləʊ/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: falwe

Inherited from Old English: fealh

Cognate with Saterland Frisian: Falge

Cognate with Western Frisian: falig

Cognate with Dutch: valg

Cognate with German: Felge

Cognate with Russian: полоса́

Inherited from Middle English: falowen

Inherited from Old English: fealgian

Cognate with Dutch: valgen

Inherited from Old English: fealu

Cognate with Western Frisian: feal

Cognate with Dutch: vaal

Cognate with German: falb

Cognate with Lithuanian: pal̃vas

Cognate with Russian: поло́вый

Cognate with Serbo-Croatian: plav

Cognate with Ancient Greek: πολιός

In summary

[Alt: A photograph of a ploughed field.]
From Middle English falwe, from Old English fealh, fealg (“fallow land”), from Proto-West Germanic *falgu (compare Saterland Frisian Falge, West Frisian falig, felling, Dutch valg, German Felge), from Proto-Indo-European *polḱéh₂ (“arable land”) (compare Gaulish olca, Russian полоса́ (polosá)).