Transcript of “Pales in Comparison”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Brittany from Indianapolis. How you doing?
Hi, Brittany. Welcome to the show.
So I had a question. I work in government of all things, and sometimes we compare, you know, when things feel really bad. We like to compare how far we’ve come, right?
So the phrase during a comparison of like something that pales in comparison. And I was wondering, like, where we get that pale from. Kind of made me think of a coloring, you know, relationship or a visual visualization of something that pales, you know.
So what are you comparing, like, this elected official to a former one or this decade to a previous one? Like development, architecture, urban design and development, how things sometimes seem like they’ve come a long way from past approaches. The problems have been solved and it’s better than it used to be.
Yeah.
Well, I think your instinct about color and intensity of color is exactly this metaphor here, that it pales. It gets lighter and lighter, kind of fades away.
Is it because the better one is outshining the worst one? So the worst one seems to be pale by comparison?
It could be. I’m just wondering if there’s like a stack of metaphors here all contributing to this idea of paling in comparison.
Yeah, I suppose it could be. I don’t think it’s anything fancier than that.
Wow. Is there any history about when we first see this phrase being used?
I haven’t considered that light aspect of like shining out the other one. Really fascinating.
Yeah, that’s a good question. I know that in the mid-19th century, you would often see to pale into insignificance, you know, to diminish in importance.
Yeah, and just to be clear, there are two main pales in English, and this is not the one that we use in the expression beyond the pale, which is either a fence or a fence of stakes, S-T-A-K-E. So this is a different pale, etymologically unconnected to the pale that has to do with intensity or color.
But we do see that as far back as the 1300s in Chaucer, we see people talking about things being pale. And this means that they’re not bright. They’re faint. And so that’s a kind of different gradation on the concept of pale.
Interesting. And I do wonder if it has any connection or influence and impact on how we describe complexion. You know, no one is commonly referred to in a positive way as pale. It’s usually we hear like fair, fair complected. And I didn’t know if it had any influence there either.
That’s a good question. Martha, do you get a sense that pale and the related word pallid are more about a negative lack of color and intensity?
Yeah, I actually do. You know, if you’re becoming pale in the face, it’s usually because of shock and fear, you know, all the blood rushing elsewhere. So in this case, you’re talking about an old building site has embarrassed and all the blood is rushed out of its face as it is outshone by a better building site.
Is that what we’re talking about here? Or like technological advances and processes. I was just wondering if I’d stretch that metaphor too far.
Metaphor. I like that. Metaphorical. Wonderful.
Thank you so much.
Yeah, Brittany. And thanks for the work you continue to do. My daughter and I love your show.
Thank you.
Thank you. That’s nice. Call us again sometime, will you?
Yeah, have her call us.
Thank you.
I will. I will do that.
Bye-bye.
Okay. Take care, Brittany.
Email words@waywordradio.org.
