This word goes back to the Latin name for FUR or ANIMAL SKIN (cf. Georges under pĕllis). In later Latin, its meaning was then extended to the human skin, which the Romance languages have continued, such as ron. games, spa. game, ita. pelle, por. pelle or fra. peau. Further, the Romance type denotes thin, flexible peels of fruit, vegetables, plants, etc. (cf. FEW 8, 164-172, under pĕllis). The metaphorical transfer to the cream layer, although only sporadically documented on the VerbaAlpina map, is quite logical (cf. the semantically similarly motivated types pellīcia, *nīta and pannus).