Middle English (in the sense 'to plunder'): variant of dialect pill, from Latin pilare 'to strip hair from', from pilus 'hair'. The differentiation of peel and pill may have been by association with the French verbs peler 'to peel' and piller 'to pillage'late Middle English: from Old French pele, from Latin pala, from the base of pangere 'to fix, plant'probably short for synonymous peel-house: peel from Anglo-Norman French pel 'stake, palisad', from Latin palus 'stake'late 19th cent.: from the name of Walter H. Peel, founder of the All England Croquet Association, a leading exponent of the practice