Meaning

noun a sudden numbing dread

noun burial garment in which a corpse is wrapped

noun hanging cloth used as a blind (especially for a window)

originFormed by aphesis from appal, appall (“(obsolete) to make pale; to weaken; to become weak; to lose flavour or become stale”), possibly under the influence of the figurative meaning of the unrelated noun pall. Alternatively, the word may be derived from Middle English pallen (“to diminish, impair, weaken; to become faint; to lose spirit”), formed by aphesis from apallen (“to become or make faint…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0