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pale¹

(pāl)

1. A stake or pointed stick; a picket.

2. A fence enclosing an area.

3. The area enclosed by a fence or boundary.

a. A region or district lying within an imposed boundary or constituting a separate jurisdiction.

b. Pale The medieval dominions of the English in Ireland. Used with the.

5. Heraldry A wide vertical band in the center of an escutcheon.

tr.v. paled, pal·ing, pales

To enclose with pales; fence in.

Idiom:

beyond the pale

Irrevocably unacceptable or unreasonable: behavior that was quite beyond the pale.

[Middle English, from Old French pal, from Latin pālus; see pag- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.]

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pale1

pale²

(pāl)

adj. pal·er, pal·est

1. Whitish in complexion; pallid.

a. Of a low intensity of color; light.

b. Having high lightness and low saturation.

3. Of a low intensity of light; dim or faint: "a late afternoon sun coming through the el tracks and falling in pale oblongs on the cracked, empty sidewalks" (Jimmy Breslin).

4. Feeble; weak: a pale rendition of the aria.

v. paled, pal·ing, pales

v.tr.

To cause to turn pale.

v.intr.

1. To become pale; blanch: paled with fright.

2. To decrease in relative importance.

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin pallidus, from pallēre, to be pale; see pel-¹ in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.]

palely adv.

paleness n.

pale-

pref.

Variant of paleo-.

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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