Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adverb Within the
boundaries , either physical or metaphorical; especially within thelimits ofacceptable behavior .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
The phrase within the pale, meaning to stay within the limits of law or decency, was in use by the mid-17th century. The phrase is a reference to the general sense of boundary, not to any of the particular places, such as the English pale in Ireland, which bore that name. Out of the many districts established by England (Cork, Dublin, Drogheda, Waterford, and Wexford), only a select few followed the laws established by England, hence "within the pale" and beyond the pale.
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