גאָלן
'to shave'

ETYMOLOGY

Polish golić.
Beider suggests that the word was borrowed from Old Polish, before the 16th c., when the root vowel was long. {However, the Yiddish protovowel here, A₂, derives from long /aː/, not long /o:/. For some reason the original vowel merged with A₂ instead of O₁ and gave rise to the different realizations in Yiddish dialects (NEY goln / SEY guln).}