pale¹ / pāl/ • adj. light in color or having little color: choose pale floral patterns for walls. ∎  (of a person's face or complexion) having less color than usual, typically as a result of shock, fear, or ill health: she looked pale and drawn. ∎ fig. feeble and unimpressive: unconvincing rock that came across as a pale imitation of Bruce Springsteen.• v. [intr.] 1. become pale in one's face from shock or fear: I paled at the thought of what she might say.2. seem less impressive or important: all else pales by comparison | his own problems paled into insignificance compared to the plight of this child.DERIVATIVES: pale·ly adv.pale·ness n.pal·ish adj.pale² • n. 1. a wooden stake or post used as an upright along with others to form a fence. ∎ fig. a boundary: bring these things back within the pale of decency. ∎ archaic or hist. an area within determined bounds, or subject to a particular jurisdiction.2. (the Pale) hist. another term for English Pale. ∎  the areas of Russia to which Jewish residence was restricted.3. Heraldry a broad vertical stripe down the middle of a shield.PHRASES: beyond the pale outside the bounds of acceptable behavior: the language my father used was beyond the pale.in pale Heraldry arranged vertically.per pale Heraldry divided by a vertical line.

pale1 former term for an area within determined bounds, or subject to a particular jurisdiction, as in the Pale, used to designate the English Pale in medieval Ireland, the territory of Calais in northern France when under English jurisdiction, and those areas of Tsarist Russia to which Jewish residence was restricted (known more fully as the Pale of Settlement).

Pale in Middle English, meaning a wooden stake used as an upright along with others to form a fence, comes via Old French from Latin palus ‘stake’.
beyond the pale outside the bounds of acceptable behaviour (recorded from the mid 19th century).

pale1 pointed stake used in forming a fence; fence of these; limit, boundary XIV; (her.) ordinary consisting of a vertical band XV; territory within determined bounds XVI. — (O)F. pal, var. of pel (mod. pieu) = It. palo :— L. pālus stake, f. IE. *paĝ-, base of pangere fix.
So vb. enclose with pales. XIV. — (O)F. paler; surviving in paling XV. palisade XVI. — F. palissade.

pale2 of whitish colour XIII; faint, dim XIV. — OF. pal(l)e (mod. pâle) — L. pallidus PALLID.
So vb. XIV. — OF. palir (mod. pâlir).

pale2 in heraldry, a broad vertical stripe down the middle of a shield (see paly).