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ap·pall

(ə-pôl)

tr.v. ap·palled, ap·pall·ing, ap·palls

To fill with horror and amazement; dismay greatly: "I was ... appalled by how my supposedly all-knowing professor could have made such hurtful mistakes" (Molly Worthen).

[Middle English apallen, to grow faint, from Old French apalir : a-, to (from Latin ad-; see AD-) + palir, to grow pale (from pale, pale, from Latin pallidus, from pallēre, to grow pale; see pel-¹ in the Appendix of Indo-European roots).]

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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