phrases, sayings, idioms and expressions at

Beyond the Pale

Posted by R. Berg on January 23, 2003

In Reply to: Beyond the Pale posted by Sean Ryan on January 23, 2003

: In one of your recent discussions of "trailer trash," the phrase "beyond the pale" was used. Can anyone say from whence it came?

: "life is too uncertain to waste on quests of vane fortune when the language is the windmill which beckons tilting..."

Would those vanes be the ones at the top of the windmill?

"Beyond the pale" means, roughly, outside the picket fence, a pale being a stake. See discussion at the Word Detective's site, www.word-detective.com/ back-q.html#pale
(link below).

  • Beyond the pale

© 1997 – 2024 Phrases.org.uk. All rights reserved.