pale

Pale, whitish, comes from Latin pallidus, while pale, a stake or boundary, comes from Latin pālus, stake.^[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

• IPA: /peɪl/^[4]

pale¹ whitish

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French pale (“pale, light-coloured”), paile,^[1][2][3] from Latin pallidus (“pale, wan”),^[1][2] from pallēre, to be pale,^[1][2] from PIE Proto-Indo-European *pel- (“pale”).^[1] It is a doublet of pallid.^[1][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of the complexion, whitish, bloodless: before 1325, in the Cursor Mundi,^[2] the early 14th century in Etymonline; in a surname Pail from 1225.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Of colours, lacking intensity, it is from the mid-14th century,^[1] and of other things and figuratively from the late 14th century.^[1] Faint or dim is 14th-century.^[3] The verb, to make or turn pale, is from about 1380, in Chaucer's Boethius.^[2][1] Paleface, supposedly translating a Native American word for a European, is American English from 1822.^[1]

Timeline

• 1225 – in a surname.^[2]
• before 1325 – of the complexion.^[2]
• mid-14th century – of colours.^[1]
• c. 1380 – the verb.^[2]
• 1822 – paleface.^[1]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Whitish in complexion; pallid.
2. Of a colour, light; containing much white.
3. Of light, dim or faint.
4. Feeble; weak: a pale imitation.

Verb

1. To become pale; to blanch.
2. To seem less important by comparison.

Word family

• paleness
• palely
• palish

pale² stake, boundary

Etymology

It is Middle English pal, later pale, borrowed from Old French pal (“stake”), pel,^[2][1][3] and directly Latin pālus (“stake, prop”),^[1][2] related to pangere, to fasten (see pact),^[2][3] from PIE Proto-Indo-European *pag- (“to fasten”).^[1] It is a doublet of pole, a stake.^[1][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A stake: before 1200;^[2] about 1200 in Anglo-Latin.^[1]

Semantic evolution

A fence of pointed stakes is from the late 14th century (about 1330 in the OED),^[1][5] and the surname Paler, fence-builder, from the late 12th.^[1] A limit, boundary or restriction is from about 1400,^[5][1] and survives in beyond the pale.^[1] An enclosed area or district within bounds is from before 1400,^[2][5] and in heraldry a vertical band down the centre of a shield is 15th-century.^[3] The Pale was the part of Ireland under English jurisdiction, and Word Origins cites a reference of 1547 to the English Pale and the wild Irish.^[6][7]

Timeline

• before 1200 – a stake.^[2]
• c. 1330 – a fence.^[5]
• c. 1400 – a limit.^[5]
• 15th century – in heraldry.^[3]
• 1547 – the English Pale in Ireland.^[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A pointed stake, as in a fence; a picket.
2. A boundary or limit: beyond the pale.
3. (heraldry) A broad vertical band down the centre of a shield.
4. (the Pale) The district of Ireland under English rule in the Middle Ages.

Verb

1. To enclose with pales; to fence in.

Word family

• paling
• palisade

Related words

• impale
• pallid
• pallor
• pole
• pact

Usage notes

In Lanarkshire Scots a pale was a faucet.^[8] The OED also records an obsolete noun pale, paleness (before 1547).^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
5. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
8. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)