Category: Word of the Day – P

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin perpotation-, perpotatio (continued drinking, drinking bout), 
from perpotat-, past participial stem of perpotare (to drink heavily),
from per- + potare (to drink) + ‑io (-ion) 

EXAMPLE
“… How could the inner man be capable of appreciating epic, when the outer man had been clogged with so much adventitious matter? Some of the guests seemed eminent professors of perpotation. My host was old, but still a literary enthusiast. His poetic fire had increased with his corporeal frigor. …”

From: The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction
Containing Original Essays, Historical Narratives….
Volume VIII. 1826
“Epicism”

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin potat-, past participial stem of potare (to drink) + ‑ive

EXAMPLE
“… desireth to cure these or such like infectious diseases, must chiefly prepare and season the body with waters of cold and naturall hearbes, in the first and second degree, be­fore the disease be possessed: then foorthwith flux the body, by some gentle and potatiue electuarie, in equall and artificial de­gree, fauourably casting out the infected humours. …”

From: The Flower of Phisicke
VVherein is perfectlie comprehended a true introduction and method for mans assured health
By William Clever, 1590

ETYMOLOGY
from pleasure (vb.) + -ance

EXAMPLE
“… With a mighty noise, noye for to here,
Playnond with pytie, no pleasurance at all,
With sykyng & sorow said on this wise:—
“A! fonnet folke, why fare ye thus now,
With solas full sore, and sanges of myrthe,
At the weddyng of the weghes, þat shall to wo turne. …”

From: The “Gest Hystoriale” of the Destruction of Troy
from Guido de Colonna’s “Hystoria troiana.”, a1400

PRONUNCIATION
PLEZH-uh-ruhns

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin præfacilis (very easy). from prae- pre- + facilis (easy, straightforward)

EXAMPLE
Finding examples for some old words, other than in dictionaries, is not as prefacile as you would think!

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin pudibundus (easily ashamed, bashful, modest, also shameful),
from pudere (to make or be ashamed) + -bundus 

EXAMPLE (for adj. 1)
“… If any man do vse to drynke water with wyne, let it be purely strayned, & than seth it and after it be cold let hī put it to his wyne, but better it is to drīke with wyne stylled waters, specyally ye water of strawberes or the water of buglos or the water of endyue, or the water of cycory, or ye water of southystel, & dandelyon. And yf any man be cobred with the stone or doth burne in the pudybunde places, vse to drynke with whyte wyne the water of hawes, & the water of mylke, voke for thys mater in a boke of my makynge named the breuyary of health …”

From: A Compendyous Regyment or a Dyetary of Healthe Made in Mountpyllyer,
By Andrewe Boorde, 1542

PRONUNCIATION
PYOO-duh-bund

ETYMOLOGY
from past participial stem of Latin persecare (to cut through), from per-  + secare (to cut)

EXAMPLE
We persecated a frog in science class.

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin patrissat- patrizat-, past participial stem of patrissare, patrizare (to act like or take after one’s father)

EXAMPLE
“…One was Walter Devereux Earl of Essex, who made him his bosome-friend, and the said Earl, lying on his death-bed, took his leave of him with many kisses, Oh my Ned (said he) farewell, thou art the faithfullest and friendliest Gentleman that ever I knew. In testimony of his true affection to the dead Father in his living Son, this Gentleman is thought to have penned that most judicious and elegant Epistle and presented it to the young Earl, conjuring him by the cogent arguments of example and rule, to patrizate. …”

From: The History of the Worthies of England
By Thomas Fuller, 1662

ETYMOLOGY
Italian, poco curante, (caring little), from poco (a little, rather) + curante (present participle of curare (to care)); from Latin curare (to cure, to heal), ? from the name of Seigneur Pococurante, a fictional apathetic Venetian senator in Voltaire’s Candide (1759)

EXAMPLE
“…Leave we my mother – (truest of all the Poco-curante’s of her sex!) – careless about it, as about every thing else in the world which concerned her; – that is, – indifferent whether it was done this way or that, – provided it was but done at all …”

From: The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
By Laurence Sterne, 1762

PRONUNCIATION
poh-koh-kyuh-RAN-tee

ETYMOLOGY
from parvi- comb. form + potent (powerful, having great authority or influence)

EXAMPLE
“…It is called his causal body. Neither can do anything without one. The aggregate of the causal bodies of all souls, that is to say, distributive ignorances, make up I’s’wara’s causal body, which is illusion. Strange to say, the ignorance of a single soul renders that soul subject to misapprehension, and keeps it parviscient, parvipotent, &c; but the aggregation of these individual ignorances, or illusion, allows I’s’wara to be exempt from misapprehension, and communicate to him such attributes as omniscience and omnipotence …”

From: A Rational Refutation of the Hindu Philosophical Systems
By Nehemiah Nilakantha S’Astri’ Gore
Translation by Fitz-Edward Hall, 1862

ETYMOLOGY
from paint + -trix 

EXAMPLE
“…Quarters wages for Midsomer, anno Regni Regis Edwardi sexti Primo. [a.d. 1457.]…
…
On leaf 27, back, are
per Cade Item, to Anthony Totto, Painter … … … vj li v s
Item, to Barthilmewe Penne, Painter … … … vj li v s
Item, to Misteris levyn Terling, Paintrix … … xli …”

In Thomas Vicary’s ‘The Anatomie of the Bodie of Man‘, 1547
Published by Early English Text Society, 1888