Category: Word of the Day – P

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin pacificus (peace-making, peaceful) + -ous,
from pax, pacem (peace) + -ficus (-fic)

EXAMPLE
“…These, belike, were not acquainted with the Exploits of the Graecian Xenophon, the Roman Caesar, the English Sidney, Montjoy and Ra∣leigh, Gentlemen that were renowned both in Arms and Letters. Yet such as were transported with Warmth to be a sighting, prevail’d in Number, before the Pacificous…”

From: Scrinia Reserata A Memorial offer’d to the Great Deservings of John Williams
By John Hacket, 1693

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin plenus (full) + loquentia (talking)

PRONUNCIATION
plen-I-luh-kwuhns

EXAMPLE
“…Mr. Emerson, writing to his friend Carlyle, August 6, 1838, thanking him for his “friendliest seeking of friends for the poor oration” (“The American Scholar”) says: I have written and read a kind of sermon to the Senior Class of our Cambridge Theological School a fortnight ago; and an address to the Literary Societies of Dartmouth College, for though I hate American pleniloquence, I cannot easily say No to young men who bid me speak also. … The first, I hear, is very offensive. I will now try to hold my tongue till next winter…”

From: The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Nature addresses and Lectures
Notes, 1838

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin proditorius proditory (traitorous, treacherous) + -ous

EXAMPLE
“…The seide lordes did holde solenne parliamentes by usurpacion of that proditorious commission into the grete preiudice of youre regaly…”

From: Polychronicon
By Ranulf Higden, a1475

ETYMOLOGY
an imitative or expressive formation

EXAMPLE
“…Hoe! God, be here! on their bald, burnt, parchment pates. Pish, pish! what talke you of olde age or balde pates? Men and women that haue gone vnder the south pole, must lay of theyr furre night-caps in spyght of their teeth, and become yeomen of the vineger bottle…”

From: Pierce Penilesse, His Supplication to the Diuell
By Thomas Nashe, 1592

ETYMOLOGY
from piss (vb.) + bed (n.),
from its diuretic property;
so French pissenlit (dandelion, bed-wetter)

EXAMPLE
“…Rosecampany; Maudlen, and Cost,
And London touft so red:
Agrimony and Lyons tooth,
That Chyldren call  Pysbed…”

From: The Courte of Vertu
By John Hall, 1565

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin pedestr-, pedester, also pedestris (going on foot), in prose, prosaic
(from pedes a person who goes on foot
(from ped-, pēs (foot) + -es (after eques) + -ter + -al 

PRONUNCIATION
puh-DESS-tree-uhl

EXAMPLE
“…For, the formall esteemed causes (which are pedestriall, equestriall, or nauti∣call) stand either at the disposition of the efficient; or pretend perfection and vse from the finall…”

From: An Essay of the Meanes Hovv to Make our Trauailes, into Forraine Countries,
the More Profitable and Honourable
By Sir Thomas Palmer, 1606

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin pluviatilis consisting of rain,
from pluvia (rain) + -atilis (-atile)

EXAMPLE
“…Take Hogges suet lb 6. Terebinthine which hath binne washed in pluviatile water & mixe the Quicksilver therwith…”

From: The Boock of Physicke
By Oswald Gaebelkhover
Translation by A.M., 1599

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin parciloquium (speaking sparingly),
from parcus (sparing) + loqui (to speak)

EXAMPLE
She delivered a parciloquy to officially open the refurbished building.

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin poculentus (drinkable, suitable for drinking),
from poculum (a cup, a drinking vessel) + -lentus (-lent), after vinolentus (addicted to drinking wine)

EXAMPLE
“…As for radish and tarragon, and the like, they are for condiments, and not for nourishment. And even some of those herbs which are not esculent, are notwithstanding poculent; as hops, broom, &c…”

From: Sylva Sylvarum
By Francis Bacon, 1626

ETYMOLOGY
from penny + father

EXAMPLE
“…This skapethrifte, throweth his good{is} against the walles. That pennie father, skrapeth it togethers, bothe by God, and by the diuell…”

From: The Praise of Folie
Moriæ encomium a booke made in Latine by that great clerke Erasmus Roterodame,
Translated by Thomas Chaloner Knight, 1549