Question: Where did the expression "take it on the lam" originate?
Answer: "Take it on the lam," meaning "to run away," originated as criminal and underworld slang before the turn of the century. This passage, written in 1904, gives some of its original flavor: "He plugged the main guy for keeps and I took it on a lam for mine." Though the expression is now used by ordinary folks as well as criminals, it still retains connotations of fleeing, escaping, or going into hiding, often from the law. This 1954 quotation from Irene Kuhn is typical of modern usage: "I won easily and I went down to the office to collect my dough. That so-and-so of a promoter had taken it on the lam."
The word "lam" was a verb meaning "to beat soundly" ("they lammed him good") when it first entered the English language in 1596, and it is still used in that sense today. The word is of Scandinavian origin, akin to Old English "lama," meaning "lame." In American slang of the late 19th century, the verb developed the sense "to run off," an extension of the literal meaning comparable to the use of "beat" in "beat it." The phrase "take it on the lam" is derived from this verb.
Question: Which is correct - "He lit a cigarette" or "He lighted a cigarette"? "Lit" sounds right to me.
Answer: It's interesting that you prefer "lit" as the past tense of "light," since the preponderance of usage commentary on this subject has, at least in the past, sided with "lighted." "Lit" seems to have been originally called into question in 1765 by a grammarian who considered it "rather low." This opinion was seconded in 1869 in an anonymous American handbook titled "Vulgarisms and Other Errors of Speech," which advised that "the word `lit' may be used as a colloquialism, but it should not be written, unless in representing conversation." Modern usage handbooks and dictionaries recognize both forms as entirely standard, but questions like yours make it clear that uncertainty about which is preferable still bothers at least a few people.
Our advice to you is not to worry about it. Both "lit" and "lighted" are perfectly correct as the past tense and past participle of "light." Our evidence shows both forms to be used about equally. A few handbooks suggest that "lighted" may be more frequent in adjectival use ("a clean, well-lighted place"), but even here our evidence shows about equal use of both forms. The decision to use one or the other is entirely a matter of personal preference, and you should feel free to choose whichever sounds best to you in a particular context.
Question: What does the phrase "beyond the pale" mean, and where does it come from?
Answer: Understanding "beyond the pale" requires a look at the history of the noun "pale," which is unrelated to the familiar adjective meaning "deficient in color." The noun is ultimately derived, by way of Middle French, from the Latin word "palus," meaning "stake." In its literal uses in English, dating back to the 14th century, "pale" has referred both to stakes and to fences and boundaries made up of stakes.
In the 15th and 16th centuries, the "boundary" sense of "pale" gave rise to a use in which it denotes a specific geographical area with defined limits, as in "the English pale," a term used when areas of Ireland, Scotland and France were dominated by the English. The phrase "beyond the pale" originally referred to any place outside this controlled area.
Gradually "pale" took on a further metaphorical sense, meaning "the limits within which one is privileged or protected (as from censure)." Thus, to be "beyond the pale" is to be outside such protective limits. The phrase is most familiarly used in describing behavior that is regarded as shocking or uncivilized, as in "His conduct at last night's dinner was simply beyond the pale."