Beyond the pale

[Reppin]

Can we all stop using this expression now?

No.
Bigger fish to fry.

Really who cares

Dear god this has to win the most ridiculous thread ever award!

Op..... you are requesting we stop using the phrase?? There's less than 50 people on this thread but over a million registered MN users..... how will you get the rest to stop using it?

Becides....it's a stock mnhq phrase they use lots....' we are deleting this thread now, it's gone beyond the pale'

Niggardly.

There's another term that causes offence to the ill-informed.

Meaning mean, miserly, penny-pinching - applies to people of all races.

Does OP object to calling a spade a spade too?

heh a great deal of public good would be served if each of the most recent posters was elected head of the students union in a University - if you think this thread is beyond ridic...

It is ridiculous though, there are so many injustices in the world, so many things to care about, and to actually try desperately to pin a phrase which is , to one notable “thing” hundreds of years ago, declare it “racist” and even start a thread asking people to not use it, is batshit.

What’s next, some fool saying you can’t say you’re building a garden “wall” because it would mean you’re a nazi sympathiser? Becayse lets be honest, it’s rhe same sort of thing as the op is trying to randomly claim.

It’s overwhelmingly clear to every single rational person that no one who uses this phrase is being racist to the Irish.

Ffs.

Dictionary.com says: ''From late 14c. as "fence of pointed stakes;" figurative sense of "limit, boundary, restriction" is from c.1400. Barely surviving in beyond the pale and similar phrases. Meaning "the part of Ireland under English rule" is from 1540s, via sense of "territory held by power of a nation or people" (mid-15c.)."
I've always associated it with "palings", this is the first time I remember hearing of the Irish definition.

I haven't heard that phrase for years and years, I didn't think it was even that common nowadays or had already died out somewhat.

In the interest of not spreading fake news, could I point out that the Nazis did not build the Berlin Wall?

The term pale in reference to fencing is by no way out of use. Try speaking to country working and farming people - the terms palings and pale are in use daily.

It is very easy to refrain from use of language which may upset people. Why upset someone?

Are you Irish OP? I am and I think it's used more commonly in Ireland than the UK.

We'd also make jokes about people going outside dublin not believing there's wifi beyond the pale

If you are Irish, I find it strange you're taking offence at it - have you heard it used in ways designed to disparage the Irish in the U.K.? Because as stated, most British people who use it don't know its specific origins. If you're not, I wouldn't be so quick to take offence on others behalf.

make It is very easy to refrain from use of language which may upset people. Why upset someone? Where does that stop then? When we are all silent?

In answer to your OP.

No.

Will still be using it as and when I want.

HTH

I'd not clocked pale and pallet and impale. Every day's a school day, innit.

Are there actually colonialism was racist!!!

It is very easy to refrain from use of language which may upset people. Why upset someone?

Because this request in particular is stupid, and based on ignorance.

Scary are you actually a teacher
I am aghast at people on this thread apparently thinking because its a long time ago its all right now
Fuming actually - have you ever stopped to think how many current global problems/conflicts have their origin in colonialism? Including N.Ireland. Yes it does matter!

actually colonialism was racist!!!

Absolutely.

*Just googled and this is what it means.
Beyond the pale.

outside the bounds of acceptable behaviour.*

Does that mean that it is beyond the pale to say beyond the pale? :)

Bluntness I appreciate that people have used this & other phrases without knowing the origin. If they come to understand & to know how people affected feel, then yes it is racist to carry on.

If my ancestors were Irish am I still being racist using this term?

If this is so has racism as a term become so nebulous as to be rendered useless?

The only time I've ever heard this expression is in Joseph and his technicolour dreamcoat. Do other people use it?

In Norman times the pale was the fencing around the settlement. Outlaws, criminals & those who behaved in a way that threatened what was a fairly fragile society were exiled "beyond the pale" because they were judged to be dangerous to the well-being of the settlement.
Once exiled, these people lost the protection of the settlement & had to fend for themselves, hence the origin of the phrase for behaviour that is unacceptable.