pâle

Pronunciation

• IPA: /pal/^[1]
• IPA: /pɑl/^[1]

Forms

pâle (plural pâles)^[1] Old French pale, palle;^[2][3][1] pasle (late 16th century, d'Aubigné), still the Académie's spelling in 1694 and 1718;^[2][3][1] pâle in Miège (1677) and in the Académie from 1740.^[2][3][1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin pallidus (“pale yellow, (of the face) pale, wan”), from palleō (“to be pale”).^[3][4][5][6] Wiktionary notes that an inherited word would have been syncopated, as Old French *paut; the unsyncopated form is why the TLFi treats it as a borrowing, though it might reflect a regional development.^[1] The learned pallide is a later doublet.^[1]

Rey places the Latin word in a widespread Indo-European family of words for faint colours, with Lithuanian pālvas (“pale, light yellow”), Old High German falo (“pale, livid”) and Ancient Greek πελιός (peliós, “livid”).^[4][7] Littré compares Italian pallido.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Chanson de Roland (about 1100) has it in its modern sense, white and colourless, of a face: teint fut et pers, descoloret et pale.^[3][4][7]

Semantic evolution

Les pâles couleurs named chlorosis (1538, Robert Estienne), and Visages pâles, the Whites as seen by the Native Americans in adventure novels (1855, Mérimée), is probably a calque of English paleface.^[3][4] Only from the 17th century has it qualified a light without brightness (1639, Corneille) and a colour mixed with white (1690, Furetière).^[3][4]

Figuratively it came to mean “dull, colourless, without character” (1807, Mme de Staël, of the future), as in faire pâle figure.^[3][4][1] The army phrase se faire porter pâle “to report sick” dates from about 1900.^[3][4][8] Its derivatives include pâleur (about 1120, after Latin pallor), pâlir (12th century) and pâlot (1775).^[4][5]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – Pale, of a face, in the Chanson de Roland.^[3]
• c. 1120 – Pâleur.^[4]
• 1538 – Pâles couleurs “chlorosis”.^[3][2]
• 1639 – Of light, in Corneille's Médée.^[3]
• 1690 – Of a colour mixed with white, in Furetière.^[3]
• 1740 – The Académie spells it pâle.^[3]
• 1807 – Figuratively, “dull”, in Mme de Staël.^[3]
• 1855 – Visages pâles, in Mérimée.^[3]
• 1900 – Se faire porter pâle.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Pale, white and dull, of the skin or face: pâle comme un linge, pâle de colère.^[8][1]
2. Of light, faint, weak: lueur pâle.^[8][1]
3. Of a colour, light, mixed with white: bleu pâle.^[3][1]
4. (figurative) Dull, colourless, insipid: une pâle imitation, faire pâle figure.^[3][1]
5. (familiar) Se faire porter pâle: to report sick.^[8][1]
6. Visage pâle: a paleface.^[8][3]

Word family

• pâleur
• pâlir
• pâlot

Related words

• pallide
• Latin pallidus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert