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Last updated on August 9th, 2017 at 05:42 am
You’d be surprised at how often people use the unintended yet delightful phrase “pale into significance”; everyone from local bloggers to BBC sports commentators and British parliamentarians.
- More interesting: What is (or was) “The Pale”?Posted by mojo on 2006 11 01 at 12:37 PM • permalink
- I think it usually meant “outside English jurisdiction”, most prominently rural Ireland.Posted by Spiny Norman on 2006 11 01 at 12:48 PM • permalink
- Er, “beyond the Pale” meant outside English jurisdiction…Posted by Spiny Norman on 2006 11 01 at 12:49 PM • permalink
- Again, I hit “submit” instead of “preview”.
Harumph.
Posted by Spiny Norman on 2006 11 01 at 12:50 PM • permalink
- The Pale.
As I suspected, it has the same etymology as palisade.
Posted by Spiny Norman on 2006 11 01 at 12:54 PM • permalink
- The phrase could, however, be used to accurately describe Michael Jackson during the 80s and 90s.Posted by ErnestBludger on 2006 11 01 at 01:28 PM • permalink
- Beyond the pale?
This is a reference to the Pale of Settlement in which Russian Jews were confined in Czarist times. To live outside the permitted region, either by special license or illegally, was said to be beyond the Pale.
The Pale was first created by Catherine the Great in 1791, after several failed attempts by her predecessors, notably the Empress Elizabeth, to remove Jews from Russia entirely unless they converted to Russian Orthodoxy. The reasons for its creation were primarily economic and nationalist. While Russian society had traditionally been divided mainly into nobles, serfs and clergy, industrial progress led to the emergence of a middle class, which was rapidly being filled by Jews, who did not belong to either sector. By limiting their area of residence, the imperial powers were ensuring the growth of a non-Jewish middle class. Catherine can be said to have established the Pale as a compromise between those members of government who continued advocating the complete expulsion of the Jews, her own liberal tendencies, and the interests of the local population of the provinces, who suffered economically from the lack of a mercantile class of Jews.
Poland and Crimea were part of the Pale of Settlement.
The traditional measures of keeping Russia free of Jews failed when the main territory of Poland was annexed during the partitions. During the second (1793) and the third (1795) partitions, large populations of Jews were taken over by Russia, and the Tsar established a Pale of Settlement that included Poland and Crimea. Jews were supposed to remain in the Pale and required special permission to move to Russia proper, while Russian officials pursued alternating policies designed to encourage assimiliation (such as opening public schools to Jews) and destroy independent Jewish life (such as forbidding Jews to live in certain towns).
A part of history branded into the memory banks of anyone with Russian Jewish roots all of whom can be said to be living beyond the pale.
Which makes it such a great name for a klezmer band.
- Is it a whiter shade of pale?Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2006 11 01 at 04:54 PM • permalink
- Maybe it’s my ESL non-credentials, but “pales into significance” doesn’t even make any frickin’ sense to me. I mean, if you’re going to wreck idioms, at least make sure the mashed-up version still looks and sounds like it has some meaning. (The aforementioned “intensive purposes” is a good example…it grates on my nerves every time I see it, but at least I can fathom why somebody would make that mistake.)
- Almost as annoying as hearing young Americans, when being distainful of something’s insignificance, talking about how “I could care less”.
Arrrghhhh!
No. The phrase is “I couldn’t care less”.
Posted by Apparatchik on 2006 11 01 at 06:54 PM • permalink
- I have also noticed that our American friends seem fond of the phrase “I could care less about…” when what they mean to say is the expression we use in these here parts “I couldn’t care less about…”
Mind you ‘strayans are right up there when it comes to malaprops – a couple that I hear often “a blue ribbon event” (blue riband) “It all goes well for…” (when they mean augers)…etc
Posted by Margos Maid on 2006 11 01 at 07:02 PM • permalink
- Didn’t see previous posts…Great mindsPosted by Margos Maid on 2006 11 01 at 07:04 PM • permalink
“pale into significance”
Works just fine on a dark background…
Posted by Harry Bergeron on 2006 11 01 at 09:56 PM • permalink
- With a decent grammar and literacy program we could correct these idioms in one fowl swoop.Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2006 11 02 at 12:49 AM • permalink
- #31
With a decent grammar and literacy program we could correct these idioms in one fowl swoop.
With a decent grammer and litracy program we could correct these idiots in one foul swoop.
#32
I pacifically referred to that above.***
Did anyone else here in Aus notice the advert a few years ago when a refrigerator company was saying that their fridge produced ice “Pure as the driven snow.” Which advertising copy idiot wrote that without knowing what it meant?
- #34 – Too true. I think its that northern/southern cirrohsis effect.Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2006 11 02 at 02:02 AM • permalink
- Not long ago I made a crack around here somewhere that when it was reported that a certain well known Sydney Islamic cleric had fallen on his sword [which in the circumstances struck me as an odd metaphor for the SMH to use] that explained why he was as mad as a cut sheik.
Which I agree was well short of the best line in the history of this blog. But not all that bad either.
It seemed to go the way of the lead balloon. Then it occurred to me that the idiom on which the line was based was probably not nearly as universal in time and space as I had assumed.
- #39 – Literacy pogrom, eh?
Teacher: I before e, except after?
Student: Except after Labor Day?.. BANG… thud.
Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2006 11 02 at 02:30 AM • permalink
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