different between verge vs pale

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /v??d??/
• (US) IPA^(key): /v?d??/
• Rhymes: -??(?)d?

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Middle French verge (“rod or wand of office”), hence "scope, territory dominated", from Latin virga (“shoot, rod stick”), of unknown origin. Earliest attested sense in English is now-obsolete meaning "male member, penis" (c.1400). Modern sense is from the notion of 'within the verge' (1509, also as Anglo-Norman dedeinz la verge), i.e. "subject to the Lord High Steward's authority" (as symbolized by the rod of office), originally a 12-mile radius round the royal court, which sense shifted to "the outermost edge of an expanse or area."

Noun

verge (plural verges)

1. A rod or staff of office, e.g. of a verger.
   1. (Britain, historical) The stick or wand with which persons were formerly admitted tenants, by holding it in the hand and swearing fealty to the lord. Such tenants were called tenants by the verge.
2. An edge or border.
   • 1848, John Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Economy

     Even though we go to the extreme verge of possibility to invent a supposition favourable to it, the theory […] implies an absurdity.

   • 1852, Matthew Arnold, Stanzas from Carnac

     But on the horizon's verge descried, / Hangs, touched with light, one snowy sail.
   1. (Britain, Australia, New Zealand) The grassy area between the footpath and the street; a tree lawn.
   2. (figuratively) An extreme limit beyond which something specific will happen.
3. (obsolete) The phallus.
   1. (zoology) The external male organ of certain mollusks, worms, etc.
4. An old measure of land: a virgate or yardland.
5. A circumference; a circle; a ring.
6. (architecture) The shaft of a column, or a small ornamental shaft.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Oxf. Gloss to this entry?)

8. (architecture) The eaves or edge of the roof that projects over the gable of a roof.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Encyc. Brit to this entry?)

9. (horology) The spindle of a watch balance, especially one with pallets, as in the old vertical escapement.

Synonyms

• (strip of land between street and sidewalk): see list at tree lawn

Translations

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Latin verg? (“to bend, turn, tend toward, incline”), from Proto-Indo-European *werg- (“to turn”), from a root *wer- (“to turn, bend”) (compare versus); strongly influenced by the above noun.

Verb

verge (third-person singular simple present verges, present participle verging, simple past and past participle verged)

1. (intransitive) To be or come very close; to border; to approach.

   Eating blowfish verges on insanity.

2. To bend or incline; to tend downward; to slope.

Derived terms

Translations

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “verge”, in Online Etymology Dictionary
• verge at OneLook Dictionary Search

Catalan

Etymology

From Old Occitan, from Latin virg?, virginem.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic) IPA^(key): /?v??.??/
• (Central) IPA^(key): /?b?r.??/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /?v??.d??e/

Adjective

verge (masculine and feminine plural verges or vèrgens)

1. virgin

   Synonym: poncell

Noun

verge m or f (plural verges or vèrgens)

1. virgin

   Synonyms: poncell, poncella

Further reading

• “verge” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

Dutch

Verb

verge

1. (archaic) singular present subjunctive of vergen

French

Etymology

From Middle French verge (“rod or wand of office”), hence "scope, territory dominated", from Old French verge, virge, from Latin virga (“shoot, rod stick”), of uncertain origin, but probably from a Proto-Indo-European *wisgeh? (“flexible rod or stick”). Doublet of vergue.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /v???/

Noun

verge f (plural verges)

1. rod
2. penis (male sexual organ)

   Synonym: pénis

3. (Canada) yard

Derived terms

Descendants

• ? Spanish: verja

Further reading

• “verge” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• grève

Friulian

Alternative forms

• verze

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *virdia (see for cognates), from syncopation of Latin viridia, neuter plural of viridis (“green”).

Noun

verge f (plural vergis)

1. cabbage

Related terms

• vert

Latin

Verb

verge

1. second-person singular present active imperative of verg?

Middle French

Etymology 1

From Old French verge, virge, from Latin virga.

Noun

verge f (plural verges)

1. rod; stick; staff
   • Exodus, the Bible

     Moyse ietta en la terre la verge qu'il tenoit dans sa main […] elle fust soudain changé en serpent

     Moses throw on the ground the staff that he held in is hand […] suddenly, it changes into a serpent

Descendants

• English: verge
• French: verge

Etymology 2

From Old French verge, vierge, virge, from virgene, from Latin virginem, accusative of virg?.

Noun

verge f (plural verges)

1. female virgin (female person who has never had sexual intercourse)

Descendants

• French: vierge

Norwegian Bokmål

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?vêr.??/
• (flapped rhotic) IPA^(key): [??æ??.??]
• (uvular rhotic) IPA^(key): [??æ??.??]

Etymology 1

From Old Norse verja. Compare Danish værge, Faroese verja, Icelandic verja, Swedish värja.

Verb

verge (present tense verger, past tense verga or verget, past participle verga or verget)

1. (transitive) to protect

Derived terms

• vergemål (“guardianship”)

Etymology 2

From the verb

Noun

verge m (definite singular vergen, indefinite plural verger, definite plural vergene)

1. (literary, rare) a protector, defender
2. (law) a guardian, conservator; a person appointed to manage the affairs of others

   Synonym: formynder

Noun

verge n (definite singular verget, indefinite plural verg, definite plural verga or vergene)

1. weapon used for defense
2. custody

   Synonyms: varetekt, forvaring

See also

• verja, verje (Nynorsk)

References

• “verge” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “verge” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

Old French

Etymology 1

From a shortening of earlier forms virgine, virgene, from Latin virginem, accusative singular of virg?, possibly a borrowing.

Alternative forms

• vierche
• vierge
• virge

Noun

verge f (oblique plural verges, nominative singular verge, nominative plural verges)

1. virgin (one who has never had sex)

Adjective

verge m (oblique and nominative feminine singular verge)

1. virgin; virginal

Usage notes

• Often capitalized as la Verge when referring to the Virgin Mary

Descendants

• Middle French: verge
  • French: vierge

Etymology 2

From Latin virga.

Alternative forms

• virge

Noun

verge f (oblique plural verges, nominative singular verge, nominative plural verges)

1. rod; stick; staff

Descendants

• Middle French: verge
  • French: verge

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: p?l, IPA^(key): /pe?l/
  • IPA^(key): [p?e???], [p?e??]
• (US)
• Rhymes: -e?l
• Homophone: pail

Etymology 1

From Middle English pale, from Old French pale, from Latin pallidus (“pale, pallid”). Doublet of pallid.

Adjective

pale (comparative paler, superlative palest)

1. Light in color.

   • “Heavens!” exclaimed Nina, “the blue-stocking and the fogy!—and yours are pale blue, Eileen!—you’re about as self-conscious as Drina—slumping there with your hair tumbling à la Mérode! Oh, it's very picturesque, of course, but a straight spine and good grooming is better. […]”

2. (of human skin) Having a pallor (a light color, especially due to sickness, shock, fright etc.).
3. Feeble, faint.

   He is but a pale shadow of his former self.

Synonyms

• (human skin): See also Thesaurus:pallid

Derived terms

• pale thrush

Translations

Verb

pale (third-person singular simple present pales, present participle paling, simple past and past participle paled)

1. (intransitive) To turn pale; to lose colour.
2. (intransitive) To become insignificant.
   • 12 July 2012, Sam Adams, AV Club Ice Age: Continental Drift

     The matter of whether the world needs a fourth Ice Age movie pales beside the question of why there were three before it, but Continental Drift feels less like an extension of a theatrical franchise than an episode of a middling TV cartoon, lolling around on territory that’s already been settled.

3. (transitive) To make pale; to diminish the brightness of.

Derived terms

• pale in comparison

Translations

Noun

pale

1. (obsolete) Paleness; pallor.
   • 1593, William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis, lines 589–592:

     The boare (quoth ?he) whereat a ?uddain pale, / Like lawne being ?pred vpon the blu?hing ro?e, / V?urpes her cheeke, ?he trembles at his tale, / And on his neck her yoaking armes ?he throwes.

Etymology 2

From Middle English pale, pal, borrowed from Old French pal, from Latin p?lus (“stake, prop”). English inherited the word pole (or, rather Old English p?l) from a much older Proto-Germanic borrowing of the same Latin word.

Doublet of peel and pole.

Noun

pale (plural pales)

1. A wooden stake; a picket.
   • 1707, John Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry, London: H. Mortlock & J. Robinson, 2nd edition, 1708, Chapter 1, pp. 11-12,^[4]

     […] if you de?ign it a Fence to keep in Deer, at every eight or ten Foot di?tance, ?et a Po?t with a Mortice in it to ?tand a little ?loping over the ?ide of the Bank about two Foot high; and into the Mortices put a Rail […] and no Deer will go over it, nor can they creep through it, as they do often, when a Pale tumbles down.

2. (archaic) Fence made from wooden stake; palisade.
   • c. 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 1, Act IV, Scene 2,^[5]

     How are we park’d and bounded in a pale,

     A little herd of England’s timorous deer,

     Mazed with a yelping kennel of French curs!

   • 1615, Ralph Hamor, A True Discourse of the Present Estate of Virginia, London: William Welby, p. 13,^[6]

     Fourthly, they ?hall not vpon any occa?ion what?oeuer breake downe any of our pales, or come into any of our Townes or forts by any other waies, i??ues or ports then ordinary [...].

3. (by extension) Limits, bounds (especially before of).
   • 1645, John Milton, Il Penseroso, in The Poetical Works of Milton, volume II, Edinburgh: Sands, Murray, and Cochran, published 1755, p. 151, lines 155–160:^[7]

     But let my due feet never fail, / To walk the ?tudious cloy?ters pale, / And love the high embowed roof, / With antic pillars ma??y proof, / And ?toried windows richly dight, / Ca?ting a dim religious light.

   • 1900, Jack London, Son of the Wolf:The Wisdom of the Trail:

     Men so situated, beyond the pale of the honor and the law, are not to be trusted.

   • 1919, B. G. Jefferis and J. L. Nichols, Searchlights on Health:When and Whom to Marry:

     All things considered, we advise the male reader to keep his desires in check till he is at least twenty-five, and the female not to enter the pale of wedlock until she has attained the age of twenty.

4. The bounds of morality, good behaviour or judgment in civilized company, in the phrase beyond the pale.
   • 2016 October 19, Jeff Flake, on Twitter:

     .@realDonaldTrump saying that he might not accept election results is beyond the pale.

5. (heraldry) A vertical band down the middle of a shield.
6. (archaic) A territory or defensive area within a specific boundary or under a given jurisdiction.
   1. (historical) The parts of Ireland under English jurisdiction.
   2. (historical) The territory around Calais under English control (from the 14th to 16th centuries).
      • 2009, Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall, Fourth Estate 2010, p. 402:

        He knows the fortifications – crumbling – and beyond the city walls the lands of the Pale, its woods, villages and marshes, its sluices, dykes and canals.

      • 2011, Thomas Penn, Winter King, Penguin 2012, p. 73:

        A low-lying, marshy enclave stretching eighteen miles along the coast and pushing some eight to ten miles inland, the Pale of Calais nestled between French Picardy to the west and, to the east, the imperial-dominated territories of Flanders.

   3. (historical) A portion of Russia in which Jews were permitted to live.
7. (archaic) The jurisdiction (territorial or otherwise) of an authority.
8. A cheese scoop.
9. A shore for bracing a timber before it is fastened.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Spencer to this entry?)

Translations

Verb

pale (third-person singular simple present pales, present participle paling, simple past and past participle paled)

1. To enclose with pales, or as if with pales; to encircle or encompass; to fence off.
   • c. 1609, William Shakespeare, Cymbeline, Act III, Scene 1,^[8]

     […] your i?le, which ?tands / As Neptunes Parke, ribb’d, and pal’d in / With Oakes vn?kaleable, and roaring Waters, / With Sands that will not bear your Enemies Boates, / But ?uck them vp to th’ Top-ma?t.

Related terms

• impale
• palisade
• pallescent

References

Anagrams

• Alep, LEAP, Lape, Leap, Peal, e-pal, leap, peal, pela, plea

Afrikaans

Noun

pale

1. plural of paal

Estonian

Noun

pale (genitive [please provide], partitive [please provide])

1. cheek

Declension

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

French

Etymology

From Latin p?la (“shovel, spade”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pal/
• Homophone: pâle (chiefly France)

Noun

pale f (plural pales)

1. blade (of a propeller etc)
2. vane (of a windmill etc)

Further reading

• “pale” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• Alep, lape, lapé, pela

Haitian Creole

Etymology

From French parler (“talk, speak”)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pa.le/

Verb

pale

1. to talk, to speak

Italian

Noun

pale f

1. plural of pala

Anagrams

• alpe, pela

Jakaltek

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish padre (“father”).

Noun

pale

1. priest

References

• Church, Clarence; Church, Katherine (1955) Vocabulario castellano-jacalteco, jacalteco-castellano?^[10] (in Spanish), Guatemala C. A.: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano, pages 17; 39

Latin

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ???? (pál?).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /?pa.le?/, [?pä??e?]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /?pa.le/, [?p??l?]

Noun

pal? f (genitive pal?s); first declension

1. a wrestling

Declension

First-declension noun (Greek-type).

Etymology 2

Noun

p?le

1. vocative singular of p?lus

References

• pale in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• pale in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• pale in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• pale in William Smith, editor (1854, 1857) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, volume 1 & 2, London: Walton and Maberly

Lindu

Noun

pale

1. (anatomy) hand

Lower Sorbian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?pal?/, [?pal?]

Participle

pale

1. third-person plural present of pali?

Norman

Etymology

From Old French pale, from Latin pallidus (“pale, pallid”).

Adjective

pale m or f

1. (Jersey) pale

Synonyms

• bliême

Northern Kurdish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p???l?/

Noun

pale ?

1. worker

Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

pale n (definite singular paleet, indefinite plural pale or paleer, definite plural palea or paleene)

1. alternative spelling of palé

Norwegian Nynorsk

Noun

pale n (definite singular paleet, indefinite plural pale, definite plural palea)

1. alternative spelling of palé

Old French

Alternative forms

• pasle
• paule

Etymology

From Latin pallidus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?pa.l?/

Adjective

pale m (oblique and nominative feminine singular pale)

1. pale, whitish or having little color

Descendants

• English: pale
• French: pâle
• Norman: pale (Jersey)

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?pa.l?/
• Homophone: pal?

Noun

pale m

1. nominative/accusative/vocative plural of pal

Noun

pale m

1. locative/vocative singular of pa?

Noun

pale f

1. dative/locative singular of pa?a

Further reading

• pale in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Serbo-Croatian

Verb

pale (Cyrillic spelling ????)

1. third-person plural present of paliti

Swahili

Pronunciation

Adjective

pale

1. Pa class inflected form of -le.