pale
/peɪl/ adjective, verb, noun, proper noun
Forms paler palest pales paling paled the Pale
- adjective Light in color. “I have pale yellow wallpaper.”
- adjective (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's death.”
- adjective Feeble, faint. “He is but a pale shadow of his former self.”
- verb (intransitive) To turn pale; to lose colour.
- verb (intransitive) To become insignificant.
- verb (transitive) To make pale; to diminish the brightness of.
- noun (obsolete) Paleness; pallor.
- noun A wooden stake; a picket.
- noun (archaic) A fence made from wooden stake; palisade.
- noun (by extension) Limits, bounds (especially before of).
- noun (heraldry) A vertical band down the middle of a shield.
- noun (historical) The parts of Ireland under English jurisdiction.
- noun (historical) The territory around Calais under English control (from the 14th to 16th centuries).
- noun (historical) A portion of Russia in which Jews were permitted to live (the Pale of Settlement).
- noun (archaic) The jurisdiction (territorial or otherwise) of an authority.
- verb To enclose with pales, or as if with pales; to encircle or encompass; to fence off.
- proper noun (historical) The part of Ireland directly under the control of the English government in the Late Middle Ages.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English pale, from Old French pale, from Latin pallidus (“pale, pallid”), from palleō (“to be pale; to grow pale; to fade”), from Proto-Indo-European *pelito-, from *pelH- (“gray”). Doublet of pallid. Displaced native Old English blāc.
From Middle English pale, pal, borrowed from Old French pal, from Latin pālus (“stake, prop”). English inherited the word pole (or, rather Old English pāl) from a much older Proto-Germanic borrowing of the same Latin word.
Doublet of peel and pole.
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Wanting in color; not ruddy; dusky white; pallid; wan; as, a pale face; a pale red; a pale blue. "Pale as a forpined ghost." Chaucer.
- adjective Not bright or brilliant; of a faint luster or hue; dim; as, the pale light of the moon.
- noun Paleness; pallor. [R.] Shak.
- verb To turn pale; to lose color or luster. Whittier.
Etymology [F. pâle, fr. pâlir to turn pale, L. pallere to be oAppall, Fallow, pall, v. i., Pallid.]
Etymology [F. pal, fr. L. palus: cf. D. paal. See Pol a stake, and lst Pallet.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “pale”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details