Meaning

noun an open sore on the back of a horse caused by ill-fitting or badly adjusted saddle

noun a skin sore caused by chafing

noun abnormal swelling of plant tissue caused by insects or microorganisms or injury

originFrom Middle English galle, from Old English ġealla, galla, from Proto-West Germanic *gallā, from Proto-Germanic *gallǭ. The figurative senses (e.g., impudence, brazenness, chutzpah) are related to the literal sense (i.e., bile) via the lasting linguocultural effects of humorism, which governed Western medicine for many centuries before the advent of scientific medicine. Related to Dutch gal,…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0