An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Pfalz
Pfalz, f., ‘palace, high official residence, palatinate,’ from MidHG. pfalz, pfalze, phalenze, f., ‘residence of a spiritual or temporal prince, palatinate, town-hall,’ OHG. pfalanza, pfalinza, f.; corresponding to OSax. palinza, palencea (used in the Heliand of the palace of Pilate). The current view is content with the assumption that the word is based on Lat. pălâtium, yet the relation of the one to the other is more difficult to determine than is generally imagined. As the permutation of LG. p to HG. pf indicates, the word must have been naturalised in G. as early as the beginning of the 8th cent.; in the age of Charlemagne it already existed in G. Besides, the nasal of the OSax. and OHG. derivative, which was retained down to MidHG. even, cannot be explained by the form of Lat. palatium, nor can we discover why it was inserted. OHG. pfalanza and OSax. palinza clearly point to MidLat. palantium, ‘murus, fastigium,’ palenca, palencum, palitium, ‘contextus ac series palorum’; we are thus led to ‘the fortress,’ or, more accurately, ‘the district enclosed by pales,’ as the orig. sense of the word Pfalz. When, at a later period, under the Carlovingians, palatia were built in Germany, the word, which had been adopted long previously from the Lat., acquired the meaning of the similarly sounding palatium. In later MidLat. appears also palantia for palatinatus, ‘the district of a count palatine.’