Beyond the pale

[pdettori]

What does beyond the pale mean?

[incitatus]

This refers to a fence or pale, which in Eastern europe was put up around ghettos, where jews were forced to live following the original pogroms. Anyone living "beyond the pale" was someone who was deemed to be of lower class, or untrustworthy and therefore should not be spoken to or of.

[daisy]

I would have to disagree and say that the generally accepted explanation relates to an area of Ireland known as "The Pale" - see http://allaboutirish.com/library/language/w-pale.h
tm