An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Fohlen

by Friedrich Kluge

Fohlen, neuter, ‘foal,’ from Middle High German vol, vole, Old High German folo, masculine, ‘colt, foal’; compare Gothic fula, masculine, ‘foal (of an ass),’ Old Icelandic fole, ‘foal’ (of a horse, rarely of an ass), Anglo-Saxon fola, masculine, English foal; a term common to Teutonic for the young of a horse or an ass, derived from pre-Teutonic pelón-, Related by gradation to Greek πῶλος, ‘colt,’ as a general term ‘young animal,’ and Latin pullus, ‘the young,’ especially of fowls. See Füllen.