One way to hold this word: a ploughed field with nothing planted in it. Everything about that field says work has been done — the soil is turned and ready — and yet the seed was deliberately held back so the ground can get its strength back. Emptiness on purpose, with something expected later. That single picture carries the farming uses and the borrowed one about time.
From the word’s history
The packet's Wiktionary etymology takes this fallow back to Old English fealh/fealg, 'fallow land', from a root meaning arable land — so the word began as the field itself and was later lent to time.
封包裡的字源說，這個 fallow 來自古英語 fealh／fealg，意思就是「休耕的地」，再往上是表示「可耕地」的字根。也就是說，它一開始講的就是那塊田，後來才被借去講一段時間。
Wiktionary entry supplied in packet (kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:1171112312) — Old English fealh, fealg 'fallow land', from Proto-Indo-European *polḱéh₂ 'arable land'.
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