sallow: [OE] English has two distinct words sallow. The adjective goes back to a prehistoric Germanic *salwa-, which was also borrowed into French as sale ‘dirty’. The underlying meaning appears to be ‘dark-coloured’. Its only surviving relative among the mainstream Germanic languages is Icelandic sölr ‘yellow’. Sallow ‘willow’ comes from a prehistoric Germanic *salkhaz, which also produced French saule ‘willow’ and was distantly related to Latin salix ‘willow’. [sallow etymology, sallow origin, 英语词源]