impale

Etymology

It is borrowed from French empaler and directly borrowed from Medieval Latin impālō (“to push onto a stake”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} though the sources weigh the two differently: the OED gives only the French verb, recorded in Froissart,^[7] Collins and Dictionary.com only the Medieval Latin,^[8][9] and Barnhart takes the word from the Latin and the variant empale, recorded from 1553, from Middle French empaler.^[10] The Medieval Latin verb is formed from in- (“in, into”), assimilated before p, and Latin pālus (“stake, post”),^[2][7][10] the source of pale and pole;^[6][8][10] the OED compares Late Latin pālō (“to support with stakes”).^[7] Etymonline derives the Latin noun from Proto-Indo-European *pak-slo-, from the root *pag- (“to fasten”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To enclose with pales or stakes, to fence in: 1530, in Palsgrave's Lesclarcissement;^[10][5][7] Etymonline says the 1520s,^[2] and Dictionary.com 1545–55.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The word entered English with the sense of fencing in, although the Medieval Latin verb already meant to thrust onto a stake.^[7][2] The first sense spread in the 16th century to surrounding troops for defence, to surrounding something with decoration such as a garland (both 1553), and to hedging someone in (1579).^[7][3] From 1605 heraldry used it for setting two coats of arms side by side on one shield, separated by a vertical line.^[7][6] The sense now usual, piercing a body with a stake as a torture or punishment, appears only in 1613, in Purchas his Pilgrimage,^[10][7][2] and before 1678, in Marvell, it was extended to anything pointed.^[7] A person could be impaled by a look from 1877.^[7] The fencing sense lasted into the 19th century in specialised uses;^[2] the OED now calls it rare, and Collins archaic.^[7][8]

Timeline

• 1530 – to enclose with pales or stakes, in Palsgrave.^[10][7][5] Etymonline dates this sense to the 1520s.^[2]
• 1553 – spelled empale, to surround troops for defence, and to surround for adornment, in Brende's translation of Curtius.^[7][10]
• 1579 – figurative, to hem in or confine.^[7]
• 1605 – in heraldry, to combine two coats of arms on one shield.^[7]
• 1613 – to pierce with a pointed stake, in Purchas.^[10][7][2]
• before 1678 – to pierce with anything pointed, in Marvell.^[7]
• 1877 – figurative, to transfix someone with one's gaze.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To pierce with something sharp or pointed: The knight fell and was impaled on a broken lance.^[8][5][7]
2. To torture or kill by fixing on a sharp stake thrust through the body.^[5][7]
3. To transfix someone, or leave them helpless, as if pierced; to pin someone with one's gaze.^[7]
4. (heraldry) To combine two coats of arms side by side on one shield, separated by a vertical line.^[8][7][6]
5. (archaic) To enclose with stakes or a palisade; to fence in.^[8][5][7]
6. (archaic) To hem in, surround or confine.^[5][7]
7. (archaic) To surround for adornment, as with a garland; to border.^[7][3]
8. (obsolete, 1553–1670) To enclose troops for defence, with other troops or with wagons.^[7][3]

Word family

• impalement
• impaler

Related words

• pale
• pole
• palisade
• pact

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology