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1 posted on 09/27/2004 9:13:18 AM PDT by stevejackson
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To: stevejackson
Later this expression was generalized to identify ideas or activities that are out of bounds, as being "beyond the pale."

This is just incorrect.

The Russian word is cherta and is translated into English as "pale", but there were other pales of settlement in the English speaking world long before the Russian pale for Jews was established in 1785.

The area around Dublin settled by Englishmen was known as the Pale, the area around Calais was also known as the Pale and the area around Glasgow was known as the Scottish Pale.

The term "beyond the pale" was a colloquialism in England in the 1500s, more than two centuries before the Russian phenomenon.

2 posted on 09/27/2004 9:32:12 AM PDT by wideawake (God bless our brave soldiers and their Commander in Chief)
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