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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Pale
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The word, which means a fence or fenced area, became used for two beleaguered patches of English territory in the 14–16C, round Calais and Dublin. 'Beyond the pale' thus came to mean beyond the bounds of civilized behaviour, as in the earliest recorded reference (16C) to the Irish pale: 'Ireland is divided in two parts – one is the English pale, and the other the wild Irish.'
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