Pale
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A pale is:
- a wooden stake used with others to make a fence - from Old French pal, from Latin palus ‘stake’[1]
- a boundary[1]
- an area within set boundaries[1] a territory or jurisdiction (possibly non-territorial) under a given authority, or the limits of such a jurisdiction. The term was often used in cases where the territory or jurisdiction outside the pale was considered hostile.
A famous pale in Ireland during the 14th and 15th centuries was known simply as the Pale, or as the English Pale. This was a region in a radius of twenty miles (32 km) around Dublin which the English gradually fortified against incursion from Gaelic Ireland.[2]
Other pales include:
- The region around Calais while it was under English dominion (surrounded by hostile French territory).
- The Pale of Settlement, an area in the western portions of Tsarist Russia, in which Jews were permitted to settle.
The word can also be used to describe the (limits of) jurisdiction of non-territorial authorities, for example, "the Church claims no authority over unbaptized persons, as they are entirely without her pale".[3]
[edit] Etymology
The word pale derives ultimately from the Latin word palus, meaning stake. (Palisade and impale are derived from the same root.) In this case it literally refers to a stake (or pole) that forms part of a protective fence around a settlement. From this came the figurative meaning of 'boundary', and the concept of a pale as an area within which local laws were valid.[4]
The phrase "beyond the pale", meaning to go beyond the limits of law or decency, was in use by the mid-17th century. The first example known to the compilers of the Oxford English Dictionary is in a work by Sir John Harington, The History of Polindor and Flostella, written sometime before 1612 but published in 1657: "Both Dove-like roved forth beyond the pale / To planted Myrtle-walk."[5] The phrase is possibly a reference to the general sense of boundary, not to any of the particular pales that bore that name[6].
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Anon (2008). "Pale". Compact Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/pale_2?view=uk. Retrieved on 2008-12-16.
- ^ Beyond the Pale: From the conquest to the penal laws Retrieved on 2008-08-21
- ^ Fanning, William H.W. (1907). "Baptism". The Catholic Encyclopedia. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02258b.htm. Retrieved on 2006-08-27.
- ^ Wilton, David. "Etymologies & Word Origins". Wordorigins.org. http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/site/beyond_the_pale/. Retrieved on 2007-10-03.
- ^ World Wide Words: Beyond the pale Retrieved on 2008-08-21
- ^ Freeman, John (1963). Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. New York: Harper & Row.
