Category: Word of the Day – P

ETYMOLOGY
from pippin, from Anglo-Norman pepin, pepine, popin and Middle French pepin (seed or pip of a fleshy fruit), possibly a derivative of a Romance base meaning ‘small’

EXAMPLE
“…and were put under the command of very valiant tailors and man-milliners, who, though on ordinary occasions the meekest, pippin-hearted little men in the world, were very devils at parades and court-martials, when they had cocked hats on their heads, and swords by their sides…”

From: A History of New York,
From the Beginning of the World to the end of the Dutch Dynasty
By Washington Irving, 1809

ETYMOLOGY
of unknown origin

EXAMPLE
“…With hart and mynd I luif humilitie
And pauchtie pryde richt sair I do detest…”

From: Maitland Folio Manuscript a1586
Edited by Sir William Alexander Craigie, 1919

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin palātum palate + -ive

EXAMPLE
“…Punish not thy self with Pleasure; Glut not thy sense with palative Delights; nor revenge the contempt of Temperance by the penalty of Satiety…”

From: Christian Morals
By Sir Thomas Browne, a1682

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin pacificat-, past ppl. stem of pacificare (to make peace, to pacify)

EXAMPLE
“…It mitigateth anger, letificateth those that bee sad, pacificateth such as are at discord. It temperateth choler, and (to conclude all in a word) it expelleth all vagrant, wandring, and imagi­nary cogitations whatsoeuer…”

From: The Secrets of Nvmbers.
According to Theologicall, Arithmeti­call, Geometricall and Harmoni­call Computation
By William Ingpen, 1624

ETYMOLOGY
from polity (a particular form of government or political organization),
from obsolete French politie, from Latin polītīa (state, government) + –ize

EXAMPLE
“…Matters of state we vse to politize,
Procrastinating for aduantage great,
LOVE, lingring hates, and lothes to temporize,
Delaie’s too olde, for his orewarmed heate:
Ah, doe not driue me of thus (still) in vaine,
Still for to lose tis much, once let me gaine…”

From: Alba The Months Minde of a Melancholy Louer
By Robert Tofte, 1598

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin petulcus (inclined to butt, butting, wanton, frisky);
(from petĕre – to aim at, assail + -ulcus (suffix forming adjectives) + -ous

EXAMPLE
“…But what does the Pape or Christian Pastour do in this case When the tumult is once raised and a disorder begun in any part of his flock by som proud turbulent spirit amongst them, the Pape first whistles him and his fellow petulcous rams into order by charitable admonition which still encreases lowder by degrees…”

From: Fiat Lux:
Or, A general Conduct to a right understanding and charity in the great Combustions and Broils about Religion here in England, Betwixt Papist and Protestant, Presbyterian and Independent
By John Baptist Vincent Canes

ETYMOLOGY
of unknown origin

EXAMPLE
“…Thro’ glaury holes, an’ dybs, nae mair
Ye’ll ward my pettles frae the lair,
Nor skinkle jet-black, here an’ there,
Wi’ white-thread hose;
Whan I gang to a kintry Fair,
To mak’ a sprose…”

From: Miscellaneous Poems, Songs, &c.,
Partly in the Scottish Dialect
By Ebenezer Picken, 1788

ETYMOLOGY
from Greek πορνo- (porno- comb. form) + ἐραστής (lover) + –ic

EXAMPLE
“…We hear nothing of those petit creve vices, those pornerastic habits in high places, those Diamond-necklace scandals, those unmentionable gambols of the Porphyro-geniti, which are too often thrust before our eyes in fiction, and indeed in fact…”

From: The Fortnightly Review
Edited by John Morley,
Vol. VII New Series, January to June, 1870
The Romance of the Peerage

ETYMOLOGY
from Anglo-Norman peisant, peisaunt, pesaunt, Anglo-Norman and Middle French pesant (of things – heavy, massive, oppressive, wearisome, difficult), (of the hand, a blow, etc. – forcible, coming down heavily), (of people – slow, sluggish), use as adjective of present participle of peiser , peser (to weigh)

EXAMPLE
“…But as for so poure a man as I, there would none aduocate pleden without wages paid byfore in honde; for pledours in worldly courtes hauen tonges lyke to t he languet of the balaunce that draweth hym alwey to the more peysaunt party, that better wyl rewarden…”

From: The Booke of the Pylgremage of the Sowle,
Translated from the French of Guillaume de Deguileville

ETYMOLOGY
from Latin pacabilis (placable),
from pacare (to appease, pacify) + -bilis (-ble)

EXAMPLE
“…Divil a worse, sir, yet not more now than ever. – Time immemorial, – wasn’t it always so? a house burned here, and a pacable tinant carded there; one villain murthering another, for teeking land over his head…”

From: Dramatic Scenes from Real Life
Manor Sackville
by Lady Sydney Morgan, 1833