pale
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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[edit] English
[edit] Pronunciation
[edit] Etymology 1
From Middle English, from Old French paile, from Latin pallidus (“pale, pallid”).
[edit] Adjective
pale (comparative paler, superlative palest)
- light in color
- I have pale yellow wallpaper.
- She had pale skin because she didn't get much sunlight.
- (of human skin) having a pallor (a light color, especially due to sickness, shock, fright etc.)
- His face turned pale after hearing about his mother' death.
[edit] Translations
light in color
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[edit] Verb
pale (third-person singular simple present pales, present participle paling, simple past and past participle paled)
- (intransitive) to become pale, to become insignificant
- 2006 New York Times Its financing pales next to the tens of billions that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will have at its disposal, ...
[edit] Derived terms
[edit] Translations
to become pale
[edit] Etymology 2
From Middle English, from Latin pālus (“stake, prop”).
[edit] Noun
pale (plural pales)
- wooden stake
- (archaic) fence made from wooden stake; palisade
- 1615, Ralph Hamor, A True Discourse of the Present State of Virginia, Richmond 1957, p. 13:
- Fourthly, they shall not vpon any occasion whatsoeuer breake downe any of our pales, or come into any of our Townes or forts by any other waies, issues or ports then ordinary [...].
- 1615, Ralph Hamor, A True Discourse of the Present State of Virginia, Richmond 1957, p. 13:
- (by extension) limits, bounds (especially before of)
- 1900, Jack London, Son of the Wolf:The Wisdom of the Trail:
- Men so situated, beyond the pale of the honor and the law, are not to be trusted.
- 1919, B. G. Jefferis and J. L. Nichols, Searchlights on Health:When and Whom to Marry:
- All things considered, we advise the male reader to keep his desires in check till he is at least twenty-five, and the female not to enter the pale of wedlock until she has attained the age of twenty.
- 1900, Jack London, Son of the Wolf:The Wisdom of the Trail:
- The bounds of morality, good behaviour or judgment in civilized company, in the phrase beyond the pale
- (heraldry) A vertical band down the middle of a shield
- (archaic) A territory or defensive area within a specific boundary or under a given jurisdiction
- (historical) The parts of Ireland under English jurisidction
- (historical) The territory around Calais under English control (from the 14th to 16th centuries)
- 2009, Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall, Fourth Estate 2010, p. 402:
- He knows the fortifications – crumbling – and beyond the city walls the lands of the Pale, its woods, villages and marshes, its sluices, dykes and canals.
- 2009, Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall, Fourth Estate 2010, p. 402:
- (archaic) The jurisdiction (territorial or otherwise) of an authority
[edit] Translations
wooden stake
heraldry: vertical band
defensive area held in another country
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
[edit] Related terms
[edit] Statistics
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Most common English words before 1923: promise · obliged · ourselves · #912: pale · happiness · religion · dress
[edit] Anagrams
[edit] Estonian
[edit] Noun
pale (??? please provide the genitive and partitive!)
[edit] Declension
- This Estonian entry needs a declension template
[edit] French
[edit] Etymology
From Latin pāla (“shovel, spade”).
[edit] Noun
pale f. (plural pales)
[edit] Anagrams
[edit] Haitian Creole
[edit] Etymology
From French parler (“talk, speak”)
[edit] Verb
pale
[edit] Italian
[edit] Noun
pale
- Plural form of pala.
[edit] Anagrams
[edit] Kurdish
[edit] Noun
pale
[edit] Latin
[edit] Noun
pāle
- vocative singular of pālus
[edit] Swahili
[edit] Adverb
pale
Categories:
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English adjectives
- English verbs
- English nouns
- English archaic terms
- en:Heraldry
- English historical terms
- English terms with multiple etymologies
- Estonian nouns
- Estonian entries needing inflection
- French terms derived from Latin
- French nouns
- French feminine nouns
- French countable nouns
- Haitian Creole terms derived from French
- Haitian Creole verbs
- Italian plurals
- Kurdish nouns
- Latin noun forms
- Swahili adverbs