pale

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This kind of "humour" is bad enough, but what really went beyond the pale was the impersonation of singer Nathalie Simard by the show's co-producer and star comedian, Véronique Cloutier.

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Definitions (61)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (16)

  1. noun A stake or pointed stick; a picket.
  2. noun A fence enclosing an area.
  3. noun The area enclosed by a fence or boundary.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (32)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (6)

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This word has been looked up 149 times.

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

thin ·  yellow ·  dull ·  cold

Used in the same contextWord Family

pale:   palest ·  paled ·  paling ·  pales
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (9)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Middle English, from Old French pal, from Latin pālus; see pag- in Indo-European roots.
  2. Middle English, from Old French, from Latin pallidus, from pallēre, to be pale; see pel-1 in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (7)

  1. from Middle English pale, paal, from Old French (and F.) pal = Spanish palo = Portuguese pao = Italian palo, from Latin pālus, rarely nent. Pālum, a stake, prop, stay, pale, orig. *paglus (cf. diminutive paxillus), from pangere (√ pag), fix, fasten: see pact. Cf. pole, from the same source, through Anglo-Saxon; and cf. deriv. palise, palisade.
  2. from Middle English palen, from Old French paler, paller, from Latin palare, inclose with pales, from palus, a pale: see pale, n.
  3. from Middle English pale, paale, from Old French pale, palle, pasle, French pâle = Spanish pálido = Portuguese Italian pallido, from Latin pallidus, pale, pallid, wan, from pallere, be pale. Cf. pallid (a doublet of pale) and pallor, from the same ult. source.
  4. from Old French pallir, palir, French pâlir, grow pale, from Latin pallere, be pale: see pale, a.
  5. Also peel (see peel), from Old French pale, from Latin pala, a spade, shovel, a bakers' pale, a winnowing-shovel.
  6. Middle English paly, paley, payly, chaff, from Old French paille, French paille, chaff, straw, = Spanish paja = Portuguese palha = Italian paglia, straw, from Latin palea, chaff, = Greek πάλη, fine meal. Cf. Sanskrit palāla, straw. Hence ult. pallet, palliasse, etc.
  7. pale, n.
 

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/peɪl/
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