Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *gʷol- ‎(“spike, tip, peak”) (whence also Latgalian gols ‎(“end, tip”)) with an extra suffix *-wā. Cognates include Latvian galva, Lithuanian galvà, Old Prussian gallū (from *galvū, from *galva), galwo ‎(“head of boot”), Sudovian kałfa (from *galva), Proto-Slavic *golva (Old Church Slavonic глава ‎(glava), Russian голова ‎(golová), Ukrainian голова ‎(holová), Belarusian галава ‎(halavá), dialectal голаў ‎(holaŭ), Bulgarian глава ‎(glavá), Czech hlava, Polish głowa), Hittite [script needed] ‎(ḫalanta) (where ḫ comes from a guttural), perhaps Old Armenian գլուխ ‎(glux).