Searchable Lemmata: pelt (ME), pelta (L), spelt (Ir), pelt (MdE).
Alternate Forms: peltis, peltys, speltib.
1(n.)
Raw Material;
hide, skin of an animal with its fur. In specific instances: a sheepskin, shorn or plucked. Also appears in compounds: cf. ME peltewolle. Note also the entry for pellet.(circa 1270 still in current use)
2. item de ij paltis remanentibus iiij d.; item de iiij pellibus ovium matricium, x pellibus hogastrorum ... ante tonsionem, iij s. iiij. d.
Accounts.
[DMLBS Ac. Wellingb. (4) 1268]
3. de xxiij pellibus ovium de morina ante tonsionem et xv peltis ovium post tonsionem et ij peltis multonum de morina post tonsionem venditis ix s. xj. d.
Accounts.
[DMLBS Ac. Wellingb. (27) 1282]
Sex: N/A Use: n/a Status: n/a Rank: n/a Ceremonial: No
Body Parts: N/A.
Speculative, ? From the noun pellet/ AF pelette?; cf. Medieval L pellis, pelletta. The medieval L form pelta seems to have stemmed from vernacular usage (s.v. '2 pelta', DMLBS X, 2172). The Irish instance is suggested by DIL to be < Middle English, but the very early date of the attestation (c. 1100x1150) makes this highly unlikely, as the word is not attested until rather later; this word may be a borrowing from Norse (cf. Norn pelt 'rag, tatter', Norse pilltra.
OED3 adds: 'The present word may show a syncopated borrowing from Anglo-Norman pelette, pellet (cf. Old French pelete, pelette membrane, pellicle, foreskin (13th cent.)) or post-classical Latin peletta, pelleta, pelletta PELLET n.2 Perh. cf. Middle High German belz, pelz (< bell{imac}z, bellez (see PELLET n.2), with syncope of the second syllable; German Pelz, {dag}Belz), and also Middle Dutch pels, pelse (Dutch pels), Middle Low German pels, pelz' ['pelt, n.1', OED Online, June 2013, OUP, 28 Aug. 2013 <http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/139921?rskey=6A5dDl&result=1&isAdvanced=false>].
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