The recent restaurant delivery, sealed waxy cardboard boxes of food arriving on a sturdy wooden pallet, is critical for tonight’s dinner service.  Considering the wide range of menu offerings, the curated palette is broad, ranging from salad to seafood to shortcake, appeasing every customer, provided we can get required ingredients and execute in time.  Opening the closest container of fresh vegetables, I sample the farm fresh mixed greens, leveraging my refined palate to identify the slight sweetness and bitter bite, of spinach and frisee respectively.

Definition:

Pallet

1.  A portable platform for storing or moving goods that are stacked on it.

2.  A hand tool with a flat blade used by potters for mixing and shaping clay.  [REF]

Palette

1. Board that provides a flat surface on which artists mix paints and organize colors.

2.  The range of hues characteristic of a particular artist, painting, or style.  [REF]

Palate

1.  The ability to taste, judge, and appreciate food.

2.  The upper surface of the mouth that separates the oral and nasal cavities.  [REF]

Deconstruction:

While this trio of terms is spelled differently, and entered the lexicon at different times, these nouns possess similar Latin roots.

Understandably, the oldest word, dating back to the 12^th century, “pallet” initially referenced a simple mattress made of straw, with multiple languages of origin for the dried and bundled grass: Anglo-French “paillete”, Old French “paillet”, and Latin “palea”.  Numerous other Eastern European dialects, including Lithuanian, Russian, and Slavic, also have similar sounding and spelled “p” phrases to describe one of the most important plants needed for human agrarian survival.

The English term “palate” was formalized in the late 14^th century, leveraging the Old French “palat”, itself stemming from the prior Latin “palatum”, literally translating to “roof of the mouth.”  This is the internal location enlightened individuals of this early era thought the perception of taste came from.

During the Middle Ages many alternative definitions materialized, not just for the basic “pallet” bedding, but also for the knights and squires who slept on this marginal comforter.  The next morning, a full suit of armor was donned, including the “palette”, flat plates of hammered metal situated underneath the armpits.

The better known “palette” is a more recent offering, tracing back to the 1620s, however the similarly spelled Old French noun “palete”, literally meaning a small shovel or blade, is much older.  It’s unclear the link between the flat tablet an artist mixes their colors on, and the flat tool used to execute the painting activity.

Ironically, the modern definition for “pallet”, the ubiquitous wooden slat platform for transporting heavy loads, didn’t materialize until 1921, around the time when the mechanical forklift was invented, enabling movement of goods in this universal format.

Even more relevant than the shared etymology is the shared pronunciation of these seemingly disparate definitions.  A feature quite common in the convoluted English linguistic schema.

Homophones sound the same but are spelled differently, homographs are identical in letters but divergent in delivery.  An easy way to remember this distinction is the suffix, with “phone” referring to talking, and “graph” referencing writing.

This entire class of characters is known as homonyms.  Some versatile words, like “bow” and “fluke”, can be both a homophone and homograph at the same time.  Confused yet?

In English, there aren’t many triple homophones with multiple syllables and 3 different spellings, especially when ignoring silent letters.  Aside from the “pal . . .” trifecta being examined, other notable examples are: aisle/I’ll/isle, borough/burro/burrow, and coward/cowered/cowherd.  This is truly a unique and confusing language.

Over time, physical pallets have evolved, from hay to burlap to wood to concrete to plastic to recycled materials.  This transition has resulted in fewer fun bonfires, but is a decidedly better approach for the environment.

The original terminology referenced a makeshift mattress pile, potentially situated in the loft of a rural barn, often used as a bed for napping, potentially while waiting for a new wagon delivery to arrive.  These days, urban transients use free wooden pallets, acquired from warehouse dumpsters, for cots, warmth, housing, and numerous other resourceful construction activities.  Oh, how far we’ve come as a productive society.

From a memory standpoint, the parallel “ll” in the spelling is a good mnemonic for recalling this physical storage item, with a consistent geometric format.

During the age of early scientific discovery, namely 14^th century Europe, homoeopathic practitioners postulated taste was interpreted by the upper region of the mouth.  Hence the Latin root word “palatum”, describing both the physical feature and the experienced sensation.  As with many historical derivations, the original vocabulary became too engrained in society to change.

With the benefit of modern medicine, it’s now known the physical palate is an important element in the jaws, composed of two distinct elements, understandably dubbed hard and soft.  The former is a boney structure in the roof, which separates oral and nasal cavities, the latter a muscular flap in the back, leading down into the throat cavity.

While human’s taste buds aren’t actually situated in the palate, the word can also be utilized to describe a person’s preferred foods.  This terminology can also extend beyond flavor to other sensory elements, like visual aesthetics and mental stimulation.  Or any experience where a tangible choice is made.

The common term “palate cleanser” outlines refreshing the taste sensors in the mouth between courses during a fancy meal.  This can also reference a novel change of pace outside of the culinary realm.

From a knowledge perspective, the “ate” suffix is a productive way to recall the link to intake of sustenance, a unique element relative to the other pair of similar sounding verbiage.

The typical artist’s palette houses shallow oval dimples of pigment hues on a thin board with a hole in it, which the user puts their thumb through to stabilize and control the swatch.  This stereotypical pose is personified in numerous magazine spreads, TV sitcoms, and documentary films.  Artsy is artsy.

Palette in modern parlance is related to all things creative, from colors to compositions, shapes to sounds.  Originally a painting term in the physical realm, this noun now plays just as well in the digital world.  With instant electronic access to all manner of imaginative pursuits, from make-up to music, modern day aesthetic palettes are broad and constantly evolving.

Color provides the key to recalling this iteration, with “pale” housed in the spelling.  Not to mention the clearly florid French “ette” suffix, as another mental queue.

Most commonly, the crossover with modern artisan nourishment preparation is where the confusion between “palate” and “palette” comes in.  Especially when the dinner is served on a fancy plate, fresh ingredients procured on “pallets” before being prepped and cooked.  Remember those mnemonic nudges.

Details:

Disparate etymology for each term, with many shared origins.  [REF]

List of common triple homophones in the English language.  [REF]

Description of this word trio with similar spelling and pronunciation.  [REF]

Grammatical comparison of these “pal”s.  [REF]