palisade

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French palissade, recorded from the 15th century,^[2][3] from Old Occitan palissada (“fence of stakes”),^{[4][5][6][7][8]} from palissa (“stake, paling”),^[4][6][3] from Vulgar Latin *pālīcea,^[4][5][6] from Latin pālus (“stake”),^[4][3][2] from Proto-Indo-European *pakslo-, a suffixed form of *pag- (“to fasten”).^[3] The OED leaves open a second route, a French formation from palis, a fence of stakes, and -ade;^[2] Klein and Weekley derive the French word from palisser (“to fence in”), from palis, from pal (“stake”).^[9][10] The variant palisado, recorded from 1589, is according to the OED an alteration of Spanish paliçada, itself from the Old Occitan word, which it derives from paliza (“palisade”) and -ada.^[2] Etymonline calls that variant the Italian form.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A fence of wooden stakes fixed in the ground, forming an enclosure or defence: 1588, in the Ancaster manuscripts.^[2][5] Barnhart and Etymonline date the word to about 1600, Barnhart to Holland's translation of Livy.^[6][3]

Semantic evolution

The word first meant a fence or defence of stakes, and later also a fence of metal railings.^[2][11] From 1601 anything like such a fence could be called a palisade.^[2] In gardening it meant an espalier or a row of clipped trees or shrubs, from 1658 in Evelyn;^[2][11] this and the hairdressing sense, a wire holding up the hair in a headdress, recorded before 1685, now belong to history.^[2] The military sense of one strong pointed stake in a row appears in Dryden's Virgil (1697), and the OED's last record is from 1857.^[2][6] American English applied the plural to the line of cliffs on the west bank of the Hudson River above New York, by 1823 according to Etymonline and in 1827 according to the OED and Barnhart,^[3][2][6] and then to cliffs like them.^[5][11] A biological sense, a layer of parallel columnar cells, dates from 1875.^[2] The verb is recorded from 1632.^[2][5][6]

Timeline

• 1588 – a fence of stakes.^[2][5]
• 1601 – something resembling such a fence.^[2]
• 1632 – verb, to enclose or fortify with a palisade.^[2][5][6]
• 1658 – an espalier; a row of trees or shrubs clipped into a hedge.^[2]
• before 1685 – a wire supporting the hair in a headdress.^[2]
• 1697 – a pointed defensive stake, set in a close row with others.^[2][6] Etymonline has the 1690s.^[3]
• 1827 – plural, the cliffs along the Hudson River.^[2][6] Etymonline dates them by 1823.^[3]
• 1875 – a layer of parallel cells, in biology.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A strong fence of stakes driven into the ground, especially as a defence: The settlers built a palisade around the fort.^[12][5][2]
2. One of the pointed stakes in such a fence.^[12][5]
3. Usually plural: a line of high cliffs, especially with a columnar face, as along the Hudson River.^[5][2][11]
4. (botany) A layer of long mesophyll cells rich in chloroplasts, lying under the outer skin of a leaf.^[12][5] (biology) Any layer of parallel columnar cells.^[2]
5. (historical) A row of trees or shrubs trained on a light fence or clipped into a hedge; an espalier.^[11][2]

Verb

1. To surround, enclose or fortify with a palisade.^[12][5][2]

Word family

• palisade cell
• palisade parenchyma

Related words

• palisado
• pale
• pole
• impale
• pact

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins