Beyond the Pale
Where does this phrase come from?
A “pale” is a pointed stick. It’s used as part of the word “impale” and “palisade.” (It’s from a French word meaning “stick.”)
As a verb, to “pale” an area meant to drive sticks into the ground to represent the boundaries of it. So a “pale” is sometimes used as a noun to mean a confined, delimited area.
Therefore, “beyond the pale” – as an idiom – means something outside the boundaries of normalcy or acceptability.
In the past, “pale” was often been used to describe a formally demarked area (by statute or decree, if not actually staked out). The “Pale of Settlement,” for example, was a defined area in Russia where Jews were allowed to live. The “Pale of Calais” was a specific territory in Middle Age France. Etc.
Why I Looked It Up
It came up in The Money Kings, but not in the idiomatic sense:
[…] great numbers of those unfortunate people have been constrained to abandon their home and leave the [Russian] Empire by reason of the impossibility of finding subsistence within the pale to which it is sought to confine them.
I’m not sure if “pale” is used here to refer to the formal Pale of Settlement, or just the idea of general confinement.