Pinterest Pixel
View Other Topics.

Odd Phrases.

Sep 3, 2017


We use "idiomatic expressions" or "phrases" every day but do we know where they originated?  Here in selections from phrases.org.uk we find the origins of two we'll surely recognize.
 
Beyond the pale
 
Meaning
 
Unacceptable; outside agreed standards of decency.
 
Origin
 
Firstly, let's get the spelling clear here. It's 'beyond the pale', and certainly not 'beyond the pail' - the phrase has nothing to do with buckets. The everyday use of the word 'pale' is as an adjective meaning whitish and light in colour (used to that effect by Procol Harum and in countless paint adverts). This 'pale' is the noun meaning 'a stake or pointed piece of wood', a meaning now virtually obsolete except as used in this phrase, but still in use in the associated words 'paling' (as in paling fence) and 'impale' (as in Dracula movies).
 
The paling fence is significant as the term 'pale' came to mean the area enclosed by such a fence and later just figuratively 'the area that is enclosed and safe'. So to be 'beyond the pale' was to be outside the area accepted as 'home'.
 


Paling fence - phrases.org.uk

Catherine the Great created the Pale of Settlement in Russia in 1791. This was the name given to the western border region of the country, in which Jews were allowed to live. The motivation behind this was to restrict trade between Jews and native Russians. Some Jews were allowed to live, as a concession, 'beyond the pale'.
 
Pales were enforced in various other European countries for similar political reasons, notably in Ireland (the Pale of Dublin) and France (the Pale of Calais, which was formed as early as 1360).
 
The phrase itself originated later than that. The first printed reference comes from 1657 in John Harington's lyric poem The History of Polindor and Flostella. In that work, the character Ortheris withdraws with his beloved to a country lodge for 'quiet, calm and ease', but they later venture further:
 
"Both Dove-like roved forth beyond the pale to planted Myrtle-walk".
 
Such recklessness rarely meets with a good end in 17th century verse and before long the lovers are attacked by armed men with 'many a dire killing thrust'. The message is clear - 'if there is a pale, decent people stay inside it', which conveys exactly the figurative meaning of the phrase as it is used today.
 
Bated breath
 
Meaning
 
Breathing that is subdued because of some emotion or difficulty.
 
Origin
 
Which is it - bated or baited? We have baited hooks and baited traps, but bated - what's that? Bated doesn't even seem to be a real word, where else do you hear it? Having said that, 'baited breath' makes little sense either. How can breath be baited? With worms?
 
There seems little guidance in contemporary texts. Search in Google and you'll find about the same number of hits for 'baited breath' as 'bated breath'. In one of the best selling books of all time, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban(whose publisher could surely have afforded the services of a proof-reader), we have:

 

"The whole common room listened with baited breath."
 Shakespeare - phrases.org.uk
 
As so often is the case, help is found in the writings of the Bard. The earliest known citation of the phrase is from Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, 1596:
 
What should I say to you? Should I not say
'Hath a dog money? is it possible
A cur can lend three thousand ducats?' Or
Shall I bend low and in a bondman's key,
With bated breath and whispering humbleness, Say this;
'Fair sir, you spit on me on Wednesday last;
You spurn'd me such a day; another time
You call'd me dog; and for these courtesies
I'll lend you thus much moneys'?
 
'Bated' is simply a shortened form of 'abated', meaning 'to bring down, lower or depress'. 'Abated breath' makes perfect sense and that's where the phrase comes from.
 
Geoffrey Taylor, in his little poem Cruel, Clever Cat, 1933, used the confusion over the spelling of the word to good comic effect:
 
Sally, having swallowed cheese
Directs down holes the scented breeze
Enticing thus with baited breath
Nice mice to an untimely death.


Image: What's that? - clipartclassroom.com



Share this article with friends!




Tags:
#odd#phrases,##phrases,#starzpsychics.com,#starz#advisors


STAY CONNECTED With STARZ SOCIALS: