pablum
[PAB-luhm] Something (as writing or speech) that is trite, insipid, or simplistic.
Examples:
1) I imagined his thoughts had been solely of me, that the letter would be filled with love sonnets, that it would gush with the same romantic pablum I devoured from those movie star magazines. (Kate Walbert, "The Gardens of Kyoto")
2) ...The mindless pablum of celebrity journalism, the endless stories about self-promoting actors and movie stars who pretend they dislike the press. (Richard Stengel, "It Ain't Necessarily Bad That Nobody's Interested in Politics", Time, March 2, 2001)
Etymology:
"Pablum" comes from Pablum, a trademark used for a bland soft cereal for infants.



pachyderm

• pachydermatous

[PAK-ih-derm]
any of various nonruminant mammals (as an elephant, a rhinoceros, or a hippopotamus) of a former group (Pachydermata) that have hooves or nails resembling hooves and usually thick skin; especially: elephant
Example:
The archetypal Seuss hero . . . was Horton, a conscientious pachyderm who was duped by a lazy bird into sitting on her egg. (Eric Pace, "The New York Times", September 26, 1991)
Etymology:
"Pachydermos" in Greek means literally "having thick skin" (figuratively, it means "dull" or "stupid"). It's from "pachys", meaning "thick", and "derma", meaning "skin". In the late 1700s the French naturalist Georges Cuvier adapted the Greek term as "pachyderme" and used it for any one of a whole assemblage of hoofed animals having thickish skin: elephants, hippopotamuses, rhinoceroses, tapirs, horses, pigs, and more. English speakers learned the word from French in the early 1800s. The adjective "pachydermatous" means "relating to the pachyderms" or "thickened" (referring to skin). Not too surprisingly, it also means "callous" or "insensitive" (somewhat unfairly to elephants, which are actually known to be rather sensitive).


pack heat

• pack
• heat

To carry a gun.
Examples:
1) Be careful when you're out late at night - you never know who might be packing heat. 2) You never had to tell Dirty Harry to pack heat - he was always carrying a .44 Magnum.
Etymology:
"Heater" is slang for a gun, and "pack" means 'a container' or 'to fold up' or 'to put away'. So when you "pack heat" you become a container for a gun - or put a gun on your body, in your clothes.

paean
[PEE-uhn]
1. A joyous song of praise, triumph, or thanksgiving.
2. An expression of praise or joy.
Examples:
1) Bud Guthrie had written a paean to the grizzly, calling it the "living, snorting incarnation of the wildness and grandeur of America." (David Whitman, "The Return of the Grizzly," The Atlantic, September 2000)
2) If you look at what British writers were saying about England before and after the war, you read for the most part a seamless paean to the virtues of the nation's strength and identity. (Hugo Young, "This Blessed Plot")
Etymology:
"Paean" comes from Latin "paean" (a hymn of thanksgiving, often addressed to god Apollo), from Greek "paian", from "Paia", a title of Apollo.


paint the town red

• paint the town
• red
• paint
• town

To have a wild time; to enjoy oneself immensely.
Examples:
1) We graduated! Let's paint the town red! 2) Lara and I painted the town red last night. I've never had so much fun before. Etymology:
The origin of this phrase is unclear. Some scholars trace it back to ancient Rome, where soldiers would celebrate a victory by painting the walls of a town with blood from its defeated soldiers. Other scholars believe the phrase comes from the American frontier, where 'paint' referred to liquor and 'red' referred to pleasurable but illegal activities.

paladin
[PAL-uh-din]
1. A knight-errant; a distinguished champion of a medieval king or prince; as, the paladins of Charlemagne.
2. A champion of a cause.
Examples:
1) Once in power, though, Clinton stumbled repeatedly over obstacles created by the schizoid campaign he had conducted, in which he had cast himself simultaneously as the champion of a more conservative Democratic credo and as a paladin of the party's traditional activism. (Robert Shogan, "The Fate of the Union")
2) Even Columbia University economist Jagdisch Baghwati, the paladin of free trade, calls for controls on capital flow. ("Terrors in the Sun," The Nation, June 29, 1998)
3) Matisse, paladin of modernism, is a long way from us now. (Robert Hughes, "The Color of Genius," Time, September 28, 1992)
4) ...The celebrated but distrusted paladin of imperialism and the romantic conception of life, the swashbuckling militarist, the vehement orator and journalist, the most public of public personalities in a world dedicated to the cultivation of private virtues, the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the Conservative Government then in power, Mr. Winston Churchill. (Isaiah Berlin, "Mr. Churchill," The Atlantic, September 1949)
Etymology:
"Paladin" derives from Late Latin "palatinus" ("an officer of the palace"), from Latin "palatium" ("royal residence, palace"), from Palatium, one of the seven hills of Rome, on which Augustus had his residence.


palaver
[puh-LAV-er]
1. Idle talk.
2. Talk intended to beguile or deceive; misleading or beguiling speech.
3. A parley, usually between persons of different backgrounds or cultures or levels of sophistication; a talk; hence, a public conference and deliberation.
4. To talk idly.
5. To flatter; to cajole.
Examples:
1) The spaceship crew settles down for a long bout of philosophical discourse that sounds suspiciously like teatime palaver in an Oxford University common room: "Time is a construct of thought too. In High Space this is all more nakedly obvious, is it not? Space isn't a thing." (Gerald Jonas, "Science Fiction", New York Times, July 8, 1990)
2) For me, a young writer about to have yet another commencement address inflicted on him, it was a wonderful surprise - an honest and detailed talk, free of the usual piety and palaver that clutter those speeches. (Alan Lelchuk, "The Death of the Jewish Novel", New York Times, November 25, 1984)
3) He is glad to palaver of his many adventures, as a boy will whistle after sundown in a wood. (O. Henry, "The Man Higher Up")
4) Ask folks involved why they opted to make [the movie], and you're not going to get a lot of palaver about high art and noble intentions. (Joshua Rich, "Entertainment Weekly", May 19, 2006)
Etymology:
During the 18th century, Portuguese and English sailors often met during trading trips along the West African coast. This contact prompted the English to borrow the Portuguese "palavra," which usually means "speech" or "word" but was used by Portuguese traders with the specific meaning "discussions with natives." The Portuguese word traces back to the Late Latin "parabola" ("proverb", "parable", "speech"), from Greek "parabole", meaning "juxtaposition" or "comparison", from "paraballein" ("to compare"), from "para-" ("beside") + "ballein" ("to throw").

palimpsest
[PAL-imp-sest] 1. A manuscript, usually of papyrus or parchment, on which more than one text has been written with the earlier writing incompletely erased and still visible. 2. An object or place whose older layers or aspects are apparent beneath its surface.
Examples:
1) The manuscript is a palimpsest consisting of vellum leaves from which the "fluent and assured script" of the original Archimedes text and 55 diagrams had been washed or scraped off so that the surface could be used for new writings. (Roger Highfield, "Eureka! Archimedes text is to be sold at auction", Daily Telegraph, October 3, 1998)
2) Each is a palimpsest, one improvisation partly burying another but leaving hints of it behind. (Robert Hughes, "Delight for Its Own Sake", Time, January 22, 1996)
3) It's a mysterious many-layered palimpsest of a metropolis where generations of natives and visitors have left their mark, from Boadicea and the Romans, through the Middle Ages and the Elizabethan era to the present. (Philip French, "Jack the knife", The Observer, February 10, 2002)
Etymology:
"Palimpsest" is from Latin "palimpsestus", from Greek "palimpsestos" ("scraped or rubbed again"), from "palin" ("again") + "psen" ("to rub (away)").


palindrome
A word, verse, or sentence (as "Able was I ere I saw Elba"), or a number (as 1881) that reads the same backward or forward.
Example:
Hannah was amused when Otto pointed out that they both had first names that were palindromes.
Etymology:
Palindromic wordplay is nothing new. Palindromes (literally "running back (again)")
have been around since at least the days of ancient Greece, and the English name for them comes from two Greek words, "palin", meaning "back" or "again", and "dramein", meaning "to run". Nowadays, we can all appreciate a clever palindrome (such as "Drab as a fool, aloof as a bard"), or even a simple one like "race car", but in the past palindromes were more than just smart wordplay. Until well into the 19th century some folks thought palindromes were actually magical, and they carved them on walls or amulets to protect people or property from harm.
Some more palindromes:
1) Madam, I'm Adam. (Adam's first words to Eve?)
2) A man, a plan, a canal - Panama! (The history of the Panama Canal in brief.)
3) Able was I ere I saw Elba. (Napoleon's lament.)
4) Mom, Dad.


pall-mall

• pell-mell

1. Pall-Mall - a street in London where many private clubs are located, the main street of St. James district.
Example:
The "Pall Mall Gazette", an evening newspaper, was founded in February, 1865 by Frederick Greenwood and George Smith.
2. The brand of American cigarettes.
Example:
A truly fine cigarette provides in fact what other cigarettes claim in theory - a smoother, less irritating smoke - "Pall Mall".
3. A 17th century game; a wooden ball was driven along an alley with a mallet. Etymology, more examples, related words:
From Italian "pallamaglio", "palla" ("ball") and maglio" ("mallet"), obsolete game of French origin ("pallemaille"), resembling croquet. An English traveler in France mentions it early in the 17th century, and it was introduced into England in the second quarter of that century.
Samuel Pepys wrote in his diary for 2 April 1661: "So I into St. James's Park, where I saw the Duke of York playing at Pelemele, the first time that ever I saw the sport." It's name was more usually spelled "pall-mall", but he wrote it as he heard it in upper-class speech. Pepys saw it played where London's Pall Mall now runs (the game was the direct origin of the street name) but the course was shifted later that same year, it is said because dust from royal carriages disrupted games. The new course was about 800 yards (740 metres) long, laid out where The Mall now lies. Pall-mall seems to have been a cross between croquet and golf, using a mallet and a boxwood ball a foot (30 cms) in diameter. The players drove the ball along the course by taking immense swings at it with the mallet. To end the game they then had to shoot the ball through a suspended hoop at one end. The person who required the fewest shots won. Some writers have sought a connection between "pall-mall" and "pell-mell", the latter meaning something that happens in a rushed, confused, or disorderly manner, in part because of Pepys's spelling and in part because of the supposed nature of the game. But this has a quite different source: French "p?le-m?le", ultimately a reduplication from "mesler" - "to mix".

palliate
[PAL-ee-ayt]
1. To reduce in violence (said of diseases, etc.); to lessen or abate.
2. To cover by excuses and apologies; to extenuate.
3. To reduce in severity; to make less intense.
Examples:
1) I had held a hope that she would take my class, that I would have the chance not only to cope with but to help palliate her pain. (Steven Polansky, "Pantalone", Harper's Magazine, February 1997)
2) He was widely praised in both East and West as a humanitarian seeking to palliate the excesses of a cruel regime. (Joseph Finder, "The Trade in Spies: Not All Black or White", New York Times, June 22, 1993)
3) The response to industrial decline was to cling even more to the British state, which had the resources to palliate its effects, and ease a transformation to a new economy - or, indeed, as many hoped, to prop up the declining industries. (Allan Massie, "Scotland not so brave in push for home rule", Irish Times, September 4, 1997)
Etymology, related words:
"Palliate" derives from Late Latin "palliatus", past participle of "palliare" ("to cloak, to conceal"), from Latin "pallium" ("cloak").
Long ago, the ancient Romans had a name for the cloak-like garb that was worn by the Greeks (distinguishing it from their own "toga"); the name was "pallium." In the 15th century, English speakers modified the Late Latin word "palliatus," which derives from "pallium," to form "palliate." Our term, used initially as both an adjective and a verb, never had the literal Latin sense referring to the cloak you wear, but it took on the figurative "cloak" of protection. Specifically, the verb "palliate" meant (as it still can mean) "to lessen the intensity of a disease." Nowadays, "palliate" can be used as a synonym of "gloss" or "whitewash" when someone is attempting to disguise something bad.


pallor
[PAL-urh]
Unusual or extreme paleness.
Examples:
1) Across the table, Joseph appeared pale, as if he never spent enough time out-of-doors on golf courses, in ballparks, or on fishing boats. He had earned this bureaucrat's pallor honestly, behind his desk, under fluorescent light, in candlelit church ceremonials. (Eugene Kennedy, "My Brother Joseph")
2) Although we had known each other for a couple of years, I don't think that I had ever seen you by daylight before, so I was surprised by the pallor of your skin. (David Bourdon, "A Letter to Charlotte Moorman," Art in America, June 2000)
Etymology:
"Pallor" is from Latin, from "pallere" ("to be pale").


palooka
[puh-LOO-kuh]
1. An inexperienced or incompetent boxer.
2. An oaf, a lout.
Example:
Before Ali, they say, boxing was just a bunch of palookas punching each other. (Joseph D. O'Brian, "American Heritage", October 1991)
3. A rookie.
4. A horse with very little chance of winning.
History:
The origin of "palooka" is unknown, though various theories have been put forth (some sources credit the baseball player and sportswriter Jack Conway with the coinage, for example). "Palooka" first appeared in print in 1924, and may have been popularized by a comic strip titled "Joe Palooka" (by Ham Fisher), which began a few years later. The probable connection between Fisher's comic and "palooka" only adds to the mystery surrounding this term, however. Joe Palooka was a boxer who was neither incompetent nor clumsy and oafish, and yet the word "palooka" came to have these negative meanings.

palpable
[PAL-puh-buhl]
1. Capable of being touched and felt; perceptible by the touch; as, "a palpable form."
2. Easily perceptible; plain; distinct; obvious; readily detected; as, "palpable imposture; palpable absurdity; palpable errors."
Example:
1) A sense of devastation from the attacks remains palpable, but so too is a sense of rejuvenation. ("Onwards and upwards," The Economist, May 23, 2002)
2) Crowds at Kennedy-related sites around Washington were no larger than usual yesterday, but the emotion was palpable. ("Grieving Public Seeks Ways to Say Goodbye to the JFK They Knew," Washington Post, July 22, 1999)
3) The loss of potential donors because of tattoos has been palpable if not drastic, blood-center officials said. ("Tattoo surprise: Many find body art bars them as blood donors," San Francisco Chronicle, July 19, 1999)
4) The movie's emotional potential, lying in wait for two hours, will sneak up on viewers, hitting them with a palpable thud. ("Crime tale told with restraint," Dallas Morning News, May 10, 1999)
5) Andre Garner and Dan Sklar... have clarion voices and the kind of palpable emotional heat and fiery commitment that can transform a song into a full-fledged little drama. (Review of "Songs for a New World," Chicago Sun-Times, December 8, 1998)
Etymology:
"Palpable" derives ultimately from Latin "palpabilis", from "palpare" ("to touch gently").


panacea

• cure-all
• Prunella vulgaris
• Prunella
• vulgaris
• self-heal

[pan-uh-SEE-uh]
A remedy for all ills or difficulties.
Synonym: cure-all.
Example:
Education reform is sometimes viewed as a panacea for all of society's problems.
History, related words:
"Panacea" is from Latin, and the Latin, in turn, is from Greek "panakeia." In Greek, "panakes" means "all-healing," combining "pan-" ("all") and "akos," which means "remedy." The Latin designation "Panacea" or "Panaces" has been awarded more than one plant at one time or other, among them the herb today known as "Prunella vulgaris", whose common name is "self-heal." More often than not, the word "panacea" is used when decrying a claim made for a remedy that seems too good to be true. Most likely that's what the author is doing in a 1625 anatomical treatise, describing "a certaine medicine made of saffron, quick silver, vermilion, antimonie, and certaine sea shels made up in fashion of triangular lozenges," and calling it a panacea.


panache
[puh-NASH; -NAHSH]
1. Dash or flamboyance in manner or style.
2. A plume or bunch of feathers, esp. such a bunch worn on the helmet; any military plume, or ornamental group of feathers.
Examples:
1) Dessert included a marvelous bread pudding and a fair bananas Foster, the old-time New Orleans dish, which was prepared with great panache tableside, complete with a flamb? moment. (Eric Asimov, "New Orleans, a City of Serious Eaters." New York Times, July 4, 1999)
2) It is... an inevitable hit, a galvanizing eruption of energy, panache and arrogantly sure-footed stagecraft that comes at a time when theatrical dance is in the doldrums. (Terry Teachout and William Tynan, "Seamy and Steamy." Time, January 25, 1999)
3) Although Black didn't have many friends and was not among the school's leaders, he was likeable, had panache, and his contemptuous tirades were rarely taken at face value. (Richard Siklos, "Shades of Black: Conrad Black and the World's Fastest Growing Press Empire")
Etymology:
"Panache" is from the French, from Medieval French "pennache", from Italian "pinnacchio" ("feather"), from Late Latin "pinnaculum", diminutive of "penna" ("feather"). It is related to "pen," originally a feather or quill used for writing.


pandect
[PAN-dekt]
1. A complete code of the laws of a country or system of law.
Example:
Obedience to the pandects of a civilized society is one mark of a good citizen.
2. A treatise covering an entire subject.
Etymology:
The original "pandect" was the "Pandectae", a massive fifty-volume digest of Roman civil law that was created under the emperor Justinian in the 6th century. The Latin word "pandectae" is the plural of "pandectes," which means "encyclopedic work" or "book that contains everything." "Pandectes" in turn derives from the Greek "pandektes" ("all-receiving"), from "pan-" ("all") and "dechesthai" ("to receive"). When the word "pandect" first cropped up in English in the mid-16th century, it referred to the complete code of laws of a particular country or system. Its "comprehensive treatise" sense developed later that century.


pandemic

• Endemic
• epidemic

[pan-DEM-ik]
1. Affecting a whole people or a number of countries; everywhere epidemic.
2. A pandemic disease.
Examples:
1) Believed to have originated in India in ancient times before first ravaging the Roman world as early as A.D. 165, since then it [smallpox] had scourged humanity in what amounted to a permanent pandemic, causing incalculable loss of life and misery through morbidity and disfigurement. (Frank Ryan, M.D., "Virus X")
2) Within a decade, half a million had perished. Nobody guessed that such a rare disease would become a pandemic. (Steve Jones, "Darwin's Ghost")
3) TV, in particular, spreads the common culture to the far corners of the world; it is a kind of global pandemic, but it spreads at a speed that makes the old plagues and pandemics unbearably slow. (Lawrence M. Friedman, "The Horizontal Society")
Etymology:
"Pandemic" ultimately derives from Greek "pandemos" - "of all the people," from "pan-" ("all") + "demos" ("people").
Related words: endemic, epidemic.
"Endemic" is peculiar to a district or particular locality, or class of persons ("diseases endemic to the tropics"). That which is "epidemic" is common to, or affecting at the same time, a large number in a community ("an epidemic outbreak of influenza"). "Pandemic" is epidemic over a wide geographical area.


panegyric
[pan-uh-JIR-ik; -JY-rik]
1. A lofty, formal composition or speech in praise of someone or something; a eulogistic oration or writing.
2. Formal or elaborate praise.
Examples:
1) It was a panegyric, a set piece praising the emperor just short of calling him a god - Rome was nominally Christian by then. (Robert Allen, "The confessions of St. Augustine," National Review, January 11, 1985)
2) The final section [of the poem]... so impressed one Catholic cleric of the 'old Faith' that he wrote an unabashed panegyric to the poet. (Philip Hoare, "Oscar Wilde's Last Stand")
3) Whether the thematics revolve around love, death, pain, and/or the struggle of existence, or panegyrics to life and to God, the swirling energetic patterns inherent in her words take on biblical power and grandeur. (Bettina L. Knapp, "World Literature in Review," World Literature Today, January 1, 1997)
4) That's all very persuasive, but it's not going to make me jump out of bed at five any more than a panegyric by a white water lily on the splendors of the morning is going to make the evening primrose transplant itself in Linnaeus's 6:00 A.M. flower bed. ("Night Owl Philonoe," American Scholar, Winter 1999)
Etymology:
"Panegyric" comes from Latin "panegyricus", from Greek "panegyrikos" ("of or for a public assembly"), from "panegyris" ("public assembly"), from "pan-" ("all") + "agyris" ("assembly").
On certain fixed dates throughout the year, the ancient Greeks would come together for religious meetings. Such gatherings could range from hometown affairs to great national assemblies, but large or small, the meeting was called a "panegyris." At those assemblies, speakers provided the main entertainment, and they delivered glowing orations extolling the praises of present civic leaders and reliving the past glories of Greek cities. To the Greeks, those laudatory speeches were "panegyrikos". Latin speakers ultimately transformed "panegyrikos" into the noun "panegyricus," and English speakers adapted that Latin term to form "panegyric."


panjandrum
[pan-JAN-druhm]
An important personage or pretentious official.
Examples:
1) Needless to say, when governors and ministers and the panjandrums of British public life asked these appointed advisers and those from whose ranks they were largely drawn for their views on democratic development, they gave the answers that might have been expected. (Christopher Patten, "East and West")
2) And so I have appointed myself the chairman, High Panjandrum, Grand Inquisitor - and sole member - of a grievance committee of my own making. (Alan K. Simpson, "Right in the Old Gazoo")
3) After years of expanding his vocabulary and perfecting his word play strategies, Uncle Peter considers himself to be a panjandrum in the world of SCRABBLE players.
Etymology:
"Panjandrum" looks like it might be a combination of Latin and Greek roots, but in fact it is a nonsense word coined by British actor and playwright Samuel Foote (1720-1777) around 1755. According to the "Oxford English Dictionary", Foote made up a line of gibberish to "test the memory of his fellow actor Charles Macklin, who had asserted that he could repeat anything after hearing it once". Foote's made-up line was, "So she went into the garden to cut a cabbage-leaf to make an apple-pie; and at the same time a great she-bear, coming up the street, pops its head into the shop. "What! No soap?" So he died, and she very imprudently married the barber: and there were present the Picninnies, and the Joblillies, and the Garyulies, and the grand Panjandrum himself, with the little round button at top, and they all fell to playing the game of catch-as-catch-can till the gunpowder ran out at the heels of their boots". It was composed on the spot to challenge actor Charles Macklin's claim that he could memorize anything. Macklin is said to have refused to repeat a word of it.
Some 75 years after this, Foote's passage appeared in a book of stories for children by the Anglo-Irish writer Maria Edgeworth. It took another quarter century before English speakers actually incorporated "panjandrum" into their general vocabulary.


panoply
[PAN-uh-plee]
1. A splendid or impressive array.
2. Ceremonial attire.
3. A full suit of armor; a complete defense or covering.
Examples:
1) Every step taken to that end which appeases the obsolete hatreds and vanished oppressions, which makes easier the traffic and reciprocal services of Europe, which encourages nations to lay aside their precautionary panoply, is good in itself. (Winston Churchill, quoted in "This Blessed Plot", by Hugo Young)
2) The beige plastic bedpan that had come home from the hospital with him after his deviated-septum operation... now held ail his razors and combs and the panoply of gleaming instruments he employed to trim the hair that grew from the various features of his face. (Michael Chabon, "Werewolves in Their Youth")
3) To the east, out over the Ocean, the winter sky is a brilliant panoply of stars and comets, beckoning to adventurers, wise and foolish alike, who seek to divine its mysteries. (Ben Green, "Before His Time")
4) Labor was hard pressed to hold the line against erosion of its hard-won social wage: the panoply of government-paid benefits such as unemployment insurance, workers' compensation, Medicare, and Social Security. (Stanley Aronowitz, "From the Ashes of the Old")
Etymology:
"Panoply" is from Greek "panoplia" ("a full suit of armor"), from "pan" ("all") + "hoplia" ("arms, armor"), plural of "hoplon" ("implement, weapon").


paparazzo

• paparazzi

[pah-puh-RAHT-soh]
A freelance photographer who aggressively pursues celebrities for the purpose of taking candid photographs.
Example:
As a child star she had been constantly pursued by paparazzi, but only a single photographer showed up at her 21st-birthday bash.
History, related words, more meanings:
We can thank Italian for "paparazzo" and its plural "paparazzi." On the immediate origin of "paparazzo," there is complete agreement - it was the surname of one of four aggressive photographers in Federico Fellini's 1959 film "La dolce vita". Opinions divide, however, on where Fellini got the word. According to Fellini himself, the name was taken from an opera libretto. But "Paparazzo" was also the name of a hotelkeeper in George Gissing's 1901 travel memoir "By the Ionian Sea". Some folks have also noted that in the dialect of Ennio Flaiano, who co-wrote the script of "La dolce vita" with Fellini, "paparazzo" refers to a kind of clam that snaps its shell open and shut frequently. This supposedly reminded Flaiano of the action of a camera shutter.


paper pusher

• paper
• pusher

An office worker; one who works in an office and deals with forms and reports all day; one whose work is dull and without meaning.
Examples:
1) I'm not sure exactly what my brother does, but I know he's a paper pusher at some huge, faceless company. 2) Ted retired to Florida after putting in 30 years as a paper pusher at Greedie Corp.
Etymology: Office workers deal with a lot of paper -- forms, reports, letters, memos, etc. And some workers simply move all that paper from one place to another, pushing the paper from desktop to drawer and back again.


paper tiger

• full of hot air
• be full of hot air
• paper
• tiger
• full of
• hot air
• full
• hot
• air

A threat that lacks force; a bluff.
Examples:
1) For a long time, the United States regarded mainland China as a paper tiger, but now the U.S. is treating China as a genuine military threat. 2) Tony's a paper tiger - sure, he wears a leather jacket and looks tough, but he's actually a nice guy.
Etymology:
This phrase is from the Chinese "tsuh lao fu," which was made popular by Mao Zedong. It refers to a man who looks tough but is not. Synonym: (be) full of hot air

par for the course

• par
• course
• up to par
• below par
• below
• up to

Just what was expected; normal; typical; nothing unusual.
Examples:
1) That was par for the course. He always comes late when there is a lot of work to do.
2) Mr. Hernandez gave me a "C". The way he's been grading lately, that's about par for the course.
History, more examples, synonyms:
In the 1920s this expression, which came from golf, was broadened to include other activities in life. In golf, "par" is the number of golf strokes it usually takes for a golf expert to play a course. That's how "par for the course" came to mean a typical or expected result. It usually has a slightly negative tone to it: "It took me three hours to get home in this blizzard, about par for the course." Related expressions are "up to par" ("satisfactory") and "below par" ("unsatisfactory").


parable

• parabola

[PAIR-uh-bul]
example; (specifically) a usually short fictitious story that illustrates a moral attitude or a religious principle
Example:
The novel is a modern-day parable about appreciating what you have.
Etymology:
"Parable" comes to us via Anglo-French from the Late Latin "parabola", which in turn comes from the Greek "parabole", meaning "comparison". The word "parabola" may look familiar if you remember your geometry. The mathematical "parabola" refers to a kind of comparison between a fixed point and a straight line, resulting in a parabolic curve; it came to English from New Latin (Latin as used since the end of the medieval period especially in scientific description and classification). "Parable", however, descends from Late Latin (the Latin language used by writers in the 3rd to 6th centuries). The Late Latin term "parabola" referred to verbal comparisons: it essentially meant "allegory" or "speech". Other English descendants of the Late Latin "parabola" are "parole" and "palaver".


paragon

• touchstone

[PAIR-uh-gahn]
A model of excellence or perfection, as, "a paragon of beauty; a paragon of eloquence".
Examples:
1) George and Muriel's marriage, which has lasted over 30 years and produced four children, is a paragon of domestic bliss.
2) Even his friends and business associates, men and women alike, were paragons of health: avoiders of fatty foods, moderate drinkers, health-club habitues, lovers of cross-country skiing, weekend canoe trips, and daylong hikes in the North Woods. (Alvin Greenberg, "How the Dead Live")
3) Voters, if they chose, could easily convince themselves that the people running their government were faithful spouses and temperate drinkers, paragons whose public images were in perfect accord with their private behavior. (Gail Collins, "Scorpion Tongues")
Etymology, related words:
"Paragon" derives from Middle French, from the Old Italian word "paragone," which literally means "touchstone", from "paragonare" ("to test on a touchstone"), and comes from the Greek "parakonan," meaning "to rub against, to sharpen." The prefix "para-" means "before" or "beside" and is found in many English words including "paradox," "paramedic," and "parallel." The second half of "parakonan" comes from "akone," meaning "whetstone." A touchstone is a black stone that was formerly used to judge the purity of gold or silver. The metal was rubbed on the stone and the color of the streak it left indicated its quality. In modern English, both "touchstone" and "paragon" have come to signify a standard against which something should be judged.


parameter
1. Constant quantity beside which other quantities are measured.
2. Variable which determines the form of a function.
3. (Comp.) Value which is transferred to a function or program and affects its operation.
Examples:
1) Some of the parameters that determine the taste of wine are displayed in the table.
2) This parameter was particularly independent of the intrinsic heart rate.
3) This parameter will indicate whether an internal LIFESPAN error has occurred or an error resulting from invalid user input or both.
Etymology:
The word "parameter" (1656) derives from the Greek "para" ("beside") and "metron" ("measure").


pardon my French

• pardon one's French
• pardon
• French
• Excuse my French
• Excuse one's French
• Excuse

(informal) Excuse my crude language, pardon my swear words.
Example:
That sod Wilkins, excuse my French, has taken my bloody parking space.
Etymology, related expressions:
It's a late 19th century euphemism which first appeared in "Harper's Magazine" in 1895. It is thought that the term French is employed in this sense as it already had a history of association with things considered vulgar. As far back as the early 16th century, "French pox" and the "French disease" were synonyms for genital herpes, and "French-sick" was another term for syphillis. The "Oxford English Dictionary" also equates the adjective "French" with "spiciness", as in "French letter" for "condom", "French kiss" (1923) and "French novels", i. e. "sexually explicit" (from 1749).


pari passu

• pari
• passu

[PAIR-ih-PASS-oo]
At an equal pace or rate.
Examples:
1) Expand the state and [its] destructive capacity necessarily expands too, pari passu. (Paul Johnson, "Modern Times: The World From the Twenties to the Eighties")
2) Independent hedge funds can sell their holdings in a stock all at once, but if a hedge fund is part of a mutual fund company, it generally must sell pari passu... with the company's mutual funds that hold the same stock, constraining flexibility. (Geraldine Fabrikant, "Should You Bristle at These Hedges?", New York Times, November 8, 1998)
Etymology:
"Pari passu" literally means "with equal step," from Latin "pari", ablative of "par" ("equal") + "passu", ablative of "passus" ("step").


parietal
[puh-RYE-uh-tul]
1. Of or relating to the walls of a part or cavity.
2. Of, relating to, or forming the upper posterior wall of the head.
3. Attached to the main wall rather than the axis or a cross wall of a plant ovary.
4. Of or relating to college living or its regulation.
Example:
The college's parietal rules allow for coed dormitories.
History:
15th-century scientists first used "parietal" (from Latin "paries," meaning "wall of a cavity or hollow organ") to describe a pair of bones of the roof of the skull between the frontal and posterior bone. Later, "parietal" was also applied to structures connected to or found in the same general area as these bones; the parietal lobe, for example, is the middle division of each hemisphere of the brain. In the 19th century, botanists adopted "parietal" as a word for ovules and placentas attached to the walls of plant ovaries. It was also in the 19th century that "parietal" began to be heard on college campuses, outside of the classroom; in 1837, Harvard College established the Parietal Committee to be in charge of "all offences against good order and decorum within the walls."


parley
[PAR-lee]
A conference or discussion, especially with an enemy, as with regard to a truce or other matters.
Examples:
1) The government recognized his knack for parleying with tribes, and it sent him all over the West. (Geoffrey O'Gara, "What You See in Clear Water")
2) Whether the Indians came out to parley or, seeing that the fort was about to fall, came out to surrender is unclear. (Willard Sterne Randall, "George Washington: A Life")
3) In case of Servia's non-compliance with the ultimatum the army will invade the kingdom without further parley. ("Austria Ready to Invade Servia, Sends Ultimatum," New York Times, July 24, 1914)
Etymology:
"Parley" comes from Old French "parl?e", from "parler" ("to speak"), from Medieval Latin "parabolare", from Late Latin "parabola" ("a proverb, a parable, a similitude"), from Greek "parabole" ("a comparison, a placing beside"), from "paraballein" ("to throw beside, hence to compare"), from "para-" ("beside") + "ballein" ("to throw").


parlous

• hazardous

[PAR-luhs]
Attended with peril; fraught with danger.
Synonym: hazardous.
Examples:
1) It was a parlous time on the Continent, when Communists and fascists vied brutally for supremacy. (Howard Simons, "Shots Seen Round the World," New York Times, September 22, 1985)
2) The Crisis left Indonesia's state finances in such a parlous state that the government is now heavily exposed to future risks. (Penny Crisp and Jose Manuel Tesoro, "The Buck Stops Here," Asiaweek, July 7, 2000)
Etymology:
"Parlous" derives from Old French "perillous", "perilleus", from Latin "periculosus", adjective form of "periculum" ("peril, danger, hazard").


paronomasia

• pun

[pair-uh-noh-MAY-zhee-uh]
A play on words.
Example:
Humorists claim that Harry Truman offered the delightful paronomasia "Missouri loves company" when he invited a friend to join him in Independence, Missouri, for a home-cooked meal.
History, synonyms, more meanings and examples:
Puns (essentially, humorous uses of words to suggest more than one interpretation) have their share of critics as well as fans. English philosopher-poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, for example, called puns "the lowest form of wit". "Paronomasia," which derives from a Greek verb meaning "to call with a slight change of name," can simply be a synonym of "pun." But it can also be used, somewhat playfully, to suggest an uncontrollable urge to make puns (as if it were a dread disease, rather than harmless word play). For example, in the July 6, 1980 "New York Times", William Safire announced, "an epidemic of paronomasia has raced around the world". And on January 1, 1989, Jerry Kobrin of "The Orange County Register" resolved to seek treatment "for a near-terminal case of paronomasia".


parse
[PAHRS]
1. To resolve (as a sentence) into its component parts of speech with an explanation of the form, function, and syntactical relationship of each part.
2. To describe grammatically by stating its part of speech, form, and syntactical relationships in a sentence.
3. To examine closely or analyze critically, especially by breaking up into components.
4. To make sense of; to comprehend.
5. (Computer Science) To analyze or separate (input, for example) into more easily processed components.
6. To admit of being parsed.
Examples:
1) We must learn to parse sentences and to analyse the grammar of our text, for, as Roman Jakobson has taught us, there is no access to the grammar of poetry, to the nerve and sinew of the poem, if one is blind to the poetry of grammar. (George Steiner, "No Passion Spent: Essays 1978-1995")
2) There are too many spots where the rhythm goes momentarily awry; where words are used with murk, sloppiness or phonetic imprecision; where sentences are so twisted around that they become hard to parse; even times where it's hard to be sure just who or what is being referred to. (Douglas Hofstadter, "What's Gained in Translation," New York Times, December 8, 1996)
3) The American Constitution, for example, says that "Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech."... once we parse notions like "abridging" and "the freedom of speech," perhaps we will decide cases on the basis of an inquiry into two, three, or more relevant considerations. (Cass R. Sunstein, "Legal Reasoning and Political Conflict")
Etymology:
"Parse" comes from the Latin "pars (orationis)" - "part (of speech)".


parsimonious
[par-suh-MOH-nee-uhs]
Sparing in expenditure; frugal to excess.
Examples:
1) His mother became increasingly parsimonious over the years, and even if there were a good doctor around she did not like to pay one. (Willard Sterne Randall, "George Washington: A Life")
2) Lehmann was famously parsimonious, and used postwar shortages as a cover for his economies. (John Richardson, "The Sorcerer's Apprentice")
3) He was extremely parsimonious with his words, parceling them out softly in a deliberate monotone as if each were a precious gem never to be squandered. (Michael Riordan and Lillian Hoddeson, "Crystal Fire")
Etymology:
"Parsimonious" is the adjective form of "parsimony", from Latin "parsimonia" ("thrift, parsimony"), from "parsus", past participle of "parcere" ("to spare, to be sparing, to economize").


party girl

• party
• girl
• it-girl
• it

An attractive young woman hired to attend parties and entertain men. Synonym: It-girl
Examples:
1) That party girl really used to swing in her time.
2) "Party Girl" is a spunky and sassy drama about a young woman who tries to create herself anew.

parvenu

• upstart

[PAR-vuh-noo]
1. (Noun) One that has recently or suddenly risen to an unaccustomed position of wealth or power and has not yet gained the prestige, dignity, or manner associated with it; one that has recently or suddenly risen to a higher social or economic class but has not gained social acceptance of others in that class.
Synonym: an upstart
2. (Adjective) Being a parvenu; also, like or having the characteristics of a parvenu.
Examples:
1) Washington old-timers viewed the young senator as an upstart parvenu.
2) But the favourite's power and influence provoke intense ill-feeling among other courtiers, who regard him as a sinister usurping parvenu with ideas above his station, or perhaps even a sorcerer. (Francis Wheen, "The whole truth about Peter's friends," The Guardian, January 31, 2001)
3) However, the Creoles, French, Spanish, and Acadians who preceded the American parvenus were deeply entrenched and incredibly snobbish and clannish in relation to outsiders. (Laurence Bergreen, "Louis Armstrong: An Extravagant Life")
4) When John Stewart Parnell went up to Magdalene College, Cambridge in 1865 he found that "the sons of moneyed parvenus from the North of England tried to liken themselves to country gentlemen and succeeded in looking like stable boys." (J. Mordaunt Crook, "The Rise of the Nouveaux Riches")
5) The Progressives were of the educated middle class, angry at the rule of parvenu financiers and industrialists. (Norman Birnbaum, "After Progress")
Etymology:
"Upstart," 1802, from Fr. "parvenu" ("said of an obscure person who has made a great fortune"), noun use of pp. of "parvenir" ("to arrive"), from L. "pervenire" ("to come through to, to arrive at, to reach, hence to succeed"), from "per-" ("through") + "venire" ("to come").


pasquinade

• satire

1. a lampoon posted in a public place
Example:
During the night a pasquinade mocking the mayor's tax policy was nailed to the town hall's front door.
2. satirical writing
Synonym: satire
Etymology:
In 1501, a marble statue from ancient times was unearthed in Rome and erected near that city's Piazza Navona. The statue depicted a male torso and was christened "Pasquino" by the Romans, perhaps after a local tailor. In those days, the citizens of Rome could not speak out against their political and religious leaders without fear of punishment, so criticism was expressed anonymously, often by means of publicly posted lampoons. The Pasquino statue became a prime location for posting such lampoons. These postings, which still appear to this day, became known in English as "pasquinades" (from the Italian "pasquinata"). The term has since expanded in usage to refer to any kind of satirical writing (such as in a magazine).


pass out

• pass

To fall asleep from exhaustion or from drinking too much; to feint.
Examples:
1) When we were in college, we used to drink until we passed out. 2) Tom was so tired when got home that he passed out on his bed with all of his clothes on.
Etymology:
"Pass" refers to movement from one place to another, and "out" refers to someplace other than here. When you "pass out" you move from normal consciousness to unconsciousness, somewhere out there in the dark.


pass the buck

• pass
• buck

To transfer blame or responsibility to someone else; to shift responsibility to others; to pass on or make another person accept responsibility or blame for something one does not want to accept for his own or her own.
Examples:
1) He always tries to pass the buck if someone tries to criticize his work.
2) You've got to make the decision yourself. You can't pass the buck on this one.
Etymology:
Some claim that it derives from an American custom of indicating who the card dealer is by stabbing a buckhorn knife into the table in front of him. Purportedly, the marker was called a buck (from "buckhorn knife" ) and it marked the current dealer. When the buck is passed to the next player, the next player deals. In a 19th-century American poker game, "buck" was a piece of buckshot (a shotgun pellet) or a pocketknife with a buckhorn handle. It was passed to you if you were the next dealer. By 1900, "passing the buck" meant shifting responsibility for something to another person. In 1949 President Harry Truman put a sign on his desk that read "The Buck Stops Here." That meant that he was accepting personal responsibility for all decisions that needed to be made and all actions that needed to be taken. He wasn't going to direct his problems to anybody else. However, this is a disputed etymology. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, "The buck is any inanimate object, usually knife or pencil, which is thrown into a jack pot and temporarily taken by the winner of the pot. Whenever the deal reaches the holder of the buck, a new jack pot must be made." (Source: "Draw Poker" by J.W. Keller, 1877)



pass the hat

• pass
• hat
• hand

To ask for contributions; to beg.
Example:
I need money for the amusement park. I may just have to pass the hat.
Synonym: hat in hand
History:
At one time, hats were passed around at entertainment events by people asking for money. The custom might have originated with street minstrels who entertained people and then requested payment. And a hat is an excellent container in which to collect money.


paste

• baste
• lambaste

[PAIST]
1. To strike hard at.
2. To beat or defeat soundly.
Example:
The school's football team pasted their rivals by 35 points in the championship game.
Etymology, related words:
"Paste" came to be as an alteration of the word "baste," which means "to beat severely or soundly." The exact origin of "baste" is uncertain, but it probably comes from the Old Norse word "beysta," meaning "to bruise, thrash, or flog." "Baste" was first seen in the 16th century, but "paste" didn't turn up in print until 1846, and it only recently acquired its "defeat" sense. "Baste" is now less popular than "paste" (the two "baste" homographs that mean "to sew with long stitches" and "to moisten while cooking" are distinct terms not related to this "baste"), though its relative "lambaste" ("to beat" or "to censure") is prevalent.


pastiche

• pasticcio

[pas-TEESH; pahs-]
1. A work of art that imitates the style of some previous work.
2. A musical, literary, or artistic composition consisting of selections from various works.
3. A hodgepodge; an incongruous combination of different styles and ingredients.
Examples:
1) The figure was a pastiche, assembled from fragments: a Greek head, a Roman imperial cuirass, and halo, limbs, weapons, and crocodile fashioned by a Venetian craftsman. (Patricia Fortini Brown, "Venice and Antiquity")
2) Whoever said the unexamined life is not worth living apparently never intended to go into book publishing, where there is almost no research and where much of the conventional wisdom is a pastiche of folklore, myth and wishful thinking. (Edwin McDowell, "Publishing: And They All Said It Wouldn't Sell," New York Times, February 6, 1989)
3) Rather, the aim is to create a composite reflection of how New York got this way, how its bridges and subways were built, how its power structure and political culture evolved, how its pastiche of unique neighborhoods developed, collapsed and rose again, and how some of its citizens survive on the bottom rung and others succeed or fail on the top. (Sam Roberts, "The 10 Best Books About New York," New York Times, February 5, 1995)
Etymology, related words:
It all began with macaroni. The English word "pastiche" is from French, but the French word was in turn borrowed from Italian, where the word is "pasticcio." "Pasticcio" is what the Italians called a kind of "macaroni pie", hence "a hodgepodge, literary or musical," ultimately from Latin "pasta" - "paste". English-speakers familiar with this multilayered dish had begun to apply the name to various sorts of potpourris or hodgepodges (musical, literary, or otherwise) by the 18th century. For over a hundred years they were happy with "pasticcio," until they discovered the French word "pastiche" sometime in the latter part of the 1800s. Although they still occasionally use "pasticcio" in its extended meaning, "pastiche" is now much more common.


paterfamilias

• patresfamilias

[pay-tuhr-fuh-MIL-ee-uhs; pat-uhr-; pah-]
Plural: patresfamilias [pay-treez-; pat-reez-; pah-treez-]
Examples:
1) The male head of a household or the father of a family. His father served as paterfamilias to the entire Garc?a clan, dispensing money and advice to those who needed it, and the family, in turn, revered him. (Leslie Stainton, "Lorca: A Dream of Life")
2) Just after World War II the paterfamilias, Eric, briefly abandons his wife and children for a doomed romance in Paris. (John Domini, "Review of Drowning, by Lee Grove," New York Times, July 21, 1991)
3) On the face of it, Henry Spencer Ashbee was a typical middle-class Victorian: a successful businessman, a strict paterfamilias. (Iain Finlayson, "Victorian erotic values," Times (London), February 21, 2001)
Etymology:
"Paterfamilias" is from Latin "pater" ("father") + "familias" ("of the family or household"), the archaic genitive form of "familia" ("family or household").


paternity leave

• paternity
• leave

time off for a new father: time off work that an employer grants to a man whose partner has just had, or is about to have, a baby; a leave of absence from work granted to a father to care for an infant.
Example:
Only a few EC countries, including France and Spain, have statutory provision for paternity leave. ("Chemistry in Britain". London: Royal Society of Chemistry, 1992)


patina
[PAT-n-uh; puh-TEEN-uh] 1. The color or incrustation which age gives to works of art; especially, the green rust which covers ancient bronzes, coins, and medals. 2. The sheen on any surface, produced by age and use. 3. An appearance or aura produced by habit, practice, or use. 4. A superficial layer or exterior.
Examples:
1) The ship was sleek and black, her decks scrubbed smooth with holystones, her deckhouses glistening with the yellowed patina of old varnish. (Gary Kinder, Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea)
2) A patina of coal dust lies over everything. ("A Railroad Runs Through It," review of Stations: An Imagined Journey, by Michael Flanagan, New York Times, October 23, 1994)
3) Rothko himself was guilty of making ponderous statements about the religious and mythic dimensions of his art; and Mrs. Ashton has adopted this clumsy impulse, laying over his work a heavy patina of commentary that seems designed to show off her own wide-ranging intellect. (Michiko Kakutani, review of "About Rothko", by Dore Ashton, New York Times, November 7, 1983)
Etymology:
"Patina" is adopted from Italian, from Latin "patina" ("a dish", from the incrustation on ancient metal plates and dishes).


patrician
(n.)
1. A member of one of the original citizen families of ancient Rome.
2. A person of high birth; a nobleman.
3. A person of refined upbringing, manners, and taste.
(adj.)
4. Of or pertaining to the patrician families of ancient Rome.
5. Of, pertaining to, or appropriate to, a person of high birth; noble; not plebeian.
6. Befitting or characteristic of refined upbringing, manners, and taste.
Examples:
1) London possessed the manner of a patrician. He was a man whose stately elegance suggested that he deemed himself above the fray. (Martin Garbus, "Tough Talk")
2) In Senator Harrison G. Otis's words, King was the "last of the Romans," or those patrician Federalists who hoped to model the American Senate upon the aristocratic body of the Roman Republic and to keep the plebeian House in check. (Joseph Martin Hernon, "Profiles in Character")
3) A neutral observer could not have said whether the handsome gentleman with the black satin eye patch over his left eye, and the meticulously trimmed salt-and-pepper goatee, and the jaunty straw hat, and the air of patrician confidence, was betraying now and then a just-perceptible apprehension, or whether, like numerous others, quite naturally in these heightened circumstances, he is merely anticipating the contest to come. (Joyce Carol Oates, "My Heart Laid Bare")
4) I stuck up for patrician values, incarnate, as I imagined, in the professional class I issued from, exemplified by my grandfather. (David Laskin, "Partisans")
Etymology:
"Patrician" derives from Latin "patricius", from "patres" ("senators") plural of "pater" ("father").


patsy

• chump
• fool
• gull
• mark
• fall guy
• fall
• guy
• sucker
• schlemiel
• shlemiel
• soft touch
• soft
• touch
• mug
• wimp

(Slang)
1. A scapegoat, one who takes the blame.
2. A person who is gullible and easy to take advantage of.
Synonyms:
chump, fool, gull, mark, fall guy, sucker, schlemiel, shlemiel, soft touch, mug, wimp
Etymology:
The word - perhaps - derives from the name Patsy Bolivar, a character in an 1880's minstrel show who is blamed whenever anything goes wrong.


paucity
[PAW-suh-tee] 1. Fewness; smallness of number; scarcity. 2. Smallness of quantity; insufficiency.
Examples:
1) The relative paucity of documents from this period may help to explain why no mention of David was found for such a long time. (Steven L. McKenzie, "King David: A Biography")
2) Just three bishops? was a regular observation made on the paucity of episcopal presence at the new dean's installation. ("Swiftian bite in Dean's sermon sets an agenda", Irish Times, September 13, 1999)
3) When he came to undertake analysis in adulthood, the paucity of these early memories caused his therapist to wonder whether some painful memories were being repressed. (Meryle Secrest, "Stephen Sondheim: A Life")
4) From paucity of evidence, we are unable to measure them with precision. (Henry Thomas Buckle, "History of Civilization in England")
Etymology:
"Paucity" is from Latin "paucitas", from "paucus" ("little, few").



paw
(SMS) parents are watching


pay through the nose

• pay
• through the nose
• pay through
• nose
• pay an arm and a leg
• an arm and a leg
• arm and a leg
• arm
• leg

To pay a high price; to pay high rates for rent or service; to pay too much.
Examples:
1) If you rent a condo in Dover, you'll pay through the nose.
2) In that restaurant, you'll pay through the nose for a meal.
Synonym: to pay an arm and a leg.
History:
There are a couple of competing folk derivations of this phrase, but they are regarded by philologists as somewhat far-fetched.
Here's an idiom from the 1600s. "Rhino" was once a slang word for money, but originally it was the Greek word for nose. The two words are similar in sound and their meaning might have come together to make this expression. Another possibility comes from Danish authorities charging Irish people a poll tax in the 9th century and cutting off or slitting the noses of those who failed to pay their taxes. There's also a gambling origin tied to "bleeding" a player - duping him to lose all his money. A related body-part saying is "pay an arm and a leg."



payoff

• kickback
• kick-back
• kick
• back
• pay-off
• pay
• off

1. A final payment or reward.
Example:
What's the payoff for finishing school? There are no good jobs even if you have your degree.
2. A bribe or illegal contribution of money to another.
3. To bribe someone.
Examples:
1) I wonder how much of a payoff the policeman got for not writing him a speeding ticket.
2) You can't trust anyone these days - everyone has been paid off in one way or another.
Synonym: kickback, kick-back

peacotum

• pluot
• dinosaur egg
• aprium
• nectarcot
• nectaplum
• grapple

A cross between a peach, a plum and an apricot.
Example:
The peacotum is described as "a rosy-red creature with just a wisp of fuzz".
Etymology, related words:
"Peacotum" = "peach" + "apricot" + "plump".
The word appeared in North America in 2004. Its name rhymes with "sea bottom" according to an article in "Fortune" magazine. The fruit was created by Floyd Zaiger, a California breeder, who also developed the "pluot", a plum-apricot hybrid, mostly plum, which the "Fortune" piece says is "available in purple, yellow, or green with red polka dots" and is sometimes called a "dinosaur egg"; it should not be confused with the "aprium", another apricot-plum cross that is mostly apricot. Others are the "nectarcot" and the "nectaplum", crosses between a nectarine and respectively an apricot and a plum. All these are trademarked names. So also is the "grapple", but this is a ripe apple that has been marinated to produce a grape flavour, so it's the product of cookery, not genetics.



peccadillo
[peck-uh-DIL-oh]
A slight offense; a petty fault.
Examples:
1) No peccadillo is too trivial: we learn that the mogul once blew his top because his laundry came back starched ("'Fluff and fold!' he screamed"). (Eric P. Nash, "High Concept," New York Times, May 10, 1998)
2) And besides, "what do they say? 'Don't judge lest you be judged.' Everybody has their peccadilloes." ("Tyson has a friend in his corner," Irish Times, October 21,1999)
3) Child of a dominant mother, victim of a guilt-ridden conscience, [St. Augustine] wrote bewilderingly haunted 'Confessions,' in which infantile peccadilloes like stealing apples and adolescent fumblings with instinctive sexuality are bewailed with all the anguish of a frustrated perfectionist. (Geoffrey Parker, "True Believers," New York Times, June 29, 1997)
4) Michael's thank-you note to his hostess was sincere and touching; his only peccadillo, however, was addressing her by her first name instead of "Mrs. Buchanan."
Etymology:
"Peccadillo" comes from Spanish "pecadillo" ("little sin"), diminutive of "pecado" ("sin"), from Latin "peccatum", from "peccare" ("to make a mistake, to err, to sin"). It is related to "impeccable" ("without flaw or fault").
"The world loves a spice of wickedness." That observation by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow may explain why people are so willing to forgive peccadilloes as youthful foolishness or lapses of judgment. The willingness to overlook petty faults and minor offenses existed long before English speakers borrowed a modified version of the Spanish "pecadillo" at the end of the 16th century. Spanish speakers distinguished the "pecadillo," or "little sin," from the more serious "pecado," their term for a sin of magnitude.


peccant

• peccadillo

[PEK-unt]
1. Sinning; guilty of transgression.
2. Violating a rule or a principle; faulty.
Examples:
1) There must be redemption even for a formerly peccant father. (John Simon, review of "Lone Star", National Review, July 29, 1996)
2) The peccant fellow is Cliff, who cheats, or tries to cheat, on his wife. (John Simon, review of "Crimes and Misdemeanors", National Review, December 8, 1989)
3) No accuser, however, was prepared to come forward to initiate a prosecution, nor could the bishop find the necessary eyewitnesses to support a criminal case against the peccant clergymen. (Peter Linehan and Janet L. Nelson, "Medieval World")
Etymology:
"Peccant" comes from the present participle of Latin of "peccare" - "to sin", "to commit a fault," or "to stumble," and is related to the better-known English word "peccadillo" ("a slight offense"). Etymologists have suggested that "peccare" might be related to the Latin "ped-, pes," meaning "foot." A related Latin adjective, "peccus," may have been used to mean "having an injured foot" or "stumbling." Whether or not a connection truly exists between "peccant" and "peccus," "peccant" itself involves stumbling of a figurative kind - making errors, for example, or falling into immoral, corrupt, or sinful behavior.

pecking order

• pecking
• order
• hierarchy
• power structure
• power
• structure

A social structure in which aggressiveness determines domination and control; from strongest to weakest, line of authority; the organization of people at different ranks in an administrative body; a system in which persons are arranged one above the other according to rank (human status).
Example:
The first thing to learn about a company is the pecking order.
Synonyms: hierarchy, power structure.
History:
This phrase describes hen behaviour and was coined by translating the German word "hackliste", which entered German in the early 1920s. By the late 1920s, its English loan translation, "pecking order", had appeared in English writing. By 1955, the phrase was carrying the sense "human status hierarchy."



pecuniary

• impecunious
• peculate
• peculiar

[pih-KYOO-nee-air-ee]
1. Relating to money.
Synonym: monetary
2. Consisting of money.
3. Requiring payment of money.
Examples:
1) "He lacked the finer element of conscience which looks upon Art as a sacred calling," she remembered, and because of "pecuniary necessities" he "scattered his forces in many different and unworthy directions." (James F. O'Gorman, "Accomplished in All Departments of Art")
2) The young man of the house was absorbed in his vegetable garden and the possibilities for pecuniary profit that it held. (Samuel Chamberlain, "Clementine in the Kitchen")
3) He sees the great pecuniary rewards and how they are gained, and naturally is moved by an impulse to obtain the same for himself. (David J. Brewer, "The Ideal Lawyer," The Atlantic, November 1906)
4) Over the decades, Pitt built an impressive roster of similarly well-heeled clients who stood accused by the SEC of securities fraud, misstating their finances, other pecuniary offenses. (Jonathan Chait, "Invested Interest," The New Republic, December 17, 2001)
5) Marcus was more than happy to water Rachel's plants while she was away and refused any pecuniary compensation for the job.
Etymology, related words:
"Pecuniary" comes from Latin "pecuniarius" ("of money, pecuniary"), from "pecunia" ("property in cattle", hence "money"), from "pecu" ("livestock, one's flocks and herds").
"Pecuniary" first appeared in English in the early 16th century. In early times, cattle were viewed as a trading commodity (as they still are in some parts of the world), and property was often valued in terms of cattle. "Pecunia" has also given us "impecunious", a word meaning "having little or no money", while "peculium" (from the same root) gave us "peculate", which is a synonym for "embezzle". In "peculium" you might also recognize the word "peculiar", which originally meant "exclusively one's own; distinctive" before acquiring its current meaning of "strange".


pelf

• pilfer

[PELF]
Money; riches; gain; generally conveying the idea of something ill-gotten.
Examples:
1) ... A master manipulator who will twist and dodge around the clock to keep the privileges of power and pelf. (Nick Cohen, "Without prejudice," The Observer, February 20, 2000)
2) She writes about those she might have known first-hand: teenage girls cowering in bunkers ... friends making promises they can never keep... rich folk fattened on wartime pelf, poor folk surviving by wit alone. (Harriet P. Gross, "Author roots her stories in Vietnam War," Dallas Morning News, July 20, 1997)
3) As so often happens, pelf is talking louder than principle at the Colorado legislature. ("Legislature Goes Belly Up," [3]Denver Rocky Mountain News, April 27, 1997)
4) In advertising, show business, and journalism, people work themselves to the nub for glitz and glory more than for pelf. (Ford S. Worthy, "You're Probably Working Too Hard," Fortune, April 27, 1987)
5) Some of the rich classmates were keeping their pelf to themselves. (Nicholas von Hoffman, "The Class of '43 Is Puzzled," The Atlantic, October 1968)
Etymology, related words:
"Pelf" comes from Old French "pelfre" ("booty, stolen goods"). It is related to "pilfer" ("steal, filch - especially in small quantities; drag, tug, pull").


pellucid

• translucent
• elucidate
• lucent
• lucid
• Lucifer
• lackluster
• illustrate
• lustrous

[puh-LOO-sid]
1. Admitting maximum passage of light without diffusion or distortion.
2. Reflecting light evenly from all surfaces.
3. Easy to understand.
Example:
The coastal waters were clean and pellucid, allowing us to easily identify the marine life on the ocean floor.
History, related words:
"Pellucid" ultimately derives from the Latin "lucere" ("to shine"), which in turn contains the root "luc-" ("light"). "Pellucid" is formed from "per" ("through") plus "lucidus" ("lucid, clear"). "Pellucid" has many shining relatives in English. Among the offspring of "lucere" are "translucent" (essentially, "clear enough to allow light to pass through"), "elucidate" ("to make clear, explain"), "lucent" ("luminous" or "clear"), and of course "lucid" itself (which can mean "shining," "mentally sound," or "easily understood"). Another related word is "Lucifer" (literally, "light-bearer"). Other relatives - such as "lackluster" ("lacking brightness"), "illustrate" (originally, "to make bright"), and "lustrous" ("shining" or "radiant") - trace from the related verb "lustrare" ("to brighten"). Clearly, "pellucid" is just one of a family of brilliant terms.


pen is mightier than the sword

• pen
• mightier
• sword

Writing is more powerful than fighting.
Example:
He says he'd rather be a writer than a general because the pen is mightier than the sword.
History:
This famous saying was first used in the 1600s. It started out as "the pen is worse than the sword." A pen and a sword have certain characteristics in common. Both are thin, pointed, and handheld. But history has shown that writers and statesmen using their pens have often had a greater effect on the course of events than military leaders and conquerors wielding swords. E.g., the Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence, and other important writings have changed the course of history more than wars have.


penny for one's thoughts

• penny for your thoughts
• penny
• thoughts
• thought
• a penny for your thoughts
• a penny for one's thoughts

Tell me what you are thinking about; tell me what is on your mind.
Examples:
1) When I'm quiet, she will say, "A penny for your thoughts."
2) You seem so serious. A penny for your thoughts.
History:
Early in the 1500s, when people first started using this expression, a penny was worth more than it is today. So if you offered a penny to a person who was either thinking or daydreaming, you'd be offering a lot to know what was going on in his or her mind.



penny-wise and pound-foolish

• penny-wise
• pound-foolish

intelligent in trivial matters but foolish in important ones; wise or careful in small things to the costly neglect of important things; saving small amounts of money while wasting large amounts.
Examples:
1) My friend is penny-wise and pound foolish and economizes on small things but wastes all of his money on big things.
2) That was penny-wise and pound-foolish. You saved a dollar in car fare when you walked all the way home, but now you need new sneakers.
History:
This was a well-known proverb by the early 1600s in England, where a pound is a unit of money. A penny was always worth much less than a pound. So the expression meant you were smart about things that were small and careless about things that were big.


penultimate

• penult
• penultima

next to the last
Example:
The penultimate day of the year found Jody madly scrambling to finish the Anderson report so she could submit it by the December 31st deadline.
Etymology & Relative Words:
"Penultimate" has two noun relatives that are used commonly enough to have gained entry into abridged dictionaries: "penult" and "penultima." Although "penultimate" is used generally to refer to anything that's next to last, "penult" and "penultima" are often a bit more specific, in that they are usually the label for the next to last syllable of a word. "Penultimate" has also developed a second sense for something relating to the last syllable of a word ("a penultimate accent"). All three derive from "paenultimus," a Latin adjective that has the same meaning as "penultimate"; logically enough, "paenultimus" results from the combination of "paene" (meaning "almost") and "ultimus" (meaning "last").


people person

• people
• person

Someone who likes being with other people and who is good at working with people.
Examples:
1) Holly is a great stewardess - she likes to fly and she's a real people person! 2) Jane is not a people person. Luckily, her job does not require her to spend a lot of time with clients.
Etymology:
This term became popular in the 1990s. It was first used in corporations as a way to describe friendly people who are good at sales and customer service.

people who live in glass houses

• people
• live in glass houses
• live
• glass houses
• glass house
• glass
• houses
• house

Persons who criticize others being just as bad as they are.
Example:
He complained about her driving, but he's already had two accidents. People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.
History:
This saying became popular in the 1300s during the time of the English poet Geoffrey Chaucer, who used it in one of his books. If you lived in a glass house, you'd better hope that no one would throw stones at it! You should not judge other people if you have the same faults as they do.


per contra

• per
• contra

[per-KAHN-truh]
1. On the contrary; by way of contrast.
Example:
The male peafowl is distinguished by a large fan-shaped tail that shimmers with brilliant iridescent color; per contra, the female is drab and pallid.
2. As an offset.
History:
Luca Pacioli knew a thing or two about keeping the records straight. He was a Franciscan friar and mathematician who lived during the Italian Renaissance (he was, in fact, a friend of Leonardo da Vinci), and he is called the "father of accounting" because he was the first to publish a detailed description of bookkeeping practices that are still used today. Among his other counsel, Pacioli advised merchants to keep an accurate ledger with debits entered on the left side and credits on the right. The word "per contra" calls to mind this time-honored practice of balancing items on one side of a ledger against those on the other. The term comes from Italian, and it translates literally as "by the opposite side (of the ledger)."


peradventure
[puhr-uhd-VEN-chuhr; pehr-]
1. (Archaic) Possibly; perhaps.
2. Chance, uncertainty, or doubt.
Examples:
1) It establishes beyond any peradventure of doubt that they were all wet and all wrong in their reports about the weapons of mass destruction, the chemical weapons, the biological weapons and the coming nuclear weapons as well. (Daniel Schorr, interview, "Weekend Edition - Saturday," with Susan Stamberg, National Public Radio, July 10, 2004)
2) The problem with Steve is that he looks like a liar. He is what a liar ought to look like. When he's telling God's own truth, hallelujah, you are certain beyond peradventure that he is lying. ("The journal of Lynton Charles," New Statesman, March 4, 2002)
3) And he was, beyond peradventure, the greatest reforming Labour prime minister of the last century. (Peter Oborne, "Mr Blair has virtually unlimited power," Spectator, June 30, 2001)
4) But the true face of Soviet power - and the reality of international politics - became clear beyond peradventure before long. (George Bailey and Brian Crozier, "Revolution against revolution," National Review, October 14, 1988)
Etymology:
"Peradventure" derives from Old French "per aventure" ("by chance"), from "per" (from Latin, "through") + "aventure" ("chance"), ultimately from the past participle of Latin "advenire" ("to arrive"), from "ad-" ("to; toward") + "venire" ("to come").


percussive maintenance

• percussive
• maintenance

The fine art of whacking the heck out of an electronic device to get it to work again; attempting to solve a mechanical or electrical problem by hitting or kicking the failed device.
Examples:
1) The plan had been to let the media and various hangers-on go out for a ride in the big white six-seater, but technical woes kept the number of five-minute tours down to five out of more than 40 that were scheduled. Early trips reported trouble that seemed to be fixed by using a wrench to apply repeated doses of percussive maintenance. (Alex Law, "Benz touts hydrogen-based fuel cell," The Toronto Star, May 18, 1996)
2) There was a time when all that was required to use the office copier, printer or fax machine was the ability to fish out paper jams and a knack for percussive maintenance  known in layman's terms as a good hard thump. (Adam Turner, "Multi-function Devices 'present Untapped Opportunities'," Sydney Morning Herald, July 30, 2002)


perdurable
[pur-DUR-uh-bul; pur-DYUR-]
Very durable; lasting; continuing long.
Examples:
1) The idea of a classic is historically bound up with the view . .. that there are certain perdurable human truths and values, immune from geographical or historical vitiation. (John Romano, "A Novel of Hope and Realism," New York Times, April 4, 1982)
2) In her first book, Lisa See... tackles a family - her own - whose intricate genealogy, bravura entrepreneurship, bitter adulteries and perdurable rivalries might have intimidated a lesser chronicler into euphemism. (Elizabeth Tallent, "Chinese Roots," New York Times, August 27, 1995)
3) A Colombian poet's perdurable love for a woman is tested by "life's changing conditions." ("Best Sellers List: January 1, 1989," New York Times, January 1, 1989)
Etymology:
"Perdurable" ultimately comes from Late Latin "perdurabilis", from Latin "perdurare" - "to last a long time, to endure", from "per-" ("throughout") + "durare" ("to last").


peremptory

• preemptive

1. Precluding or putting an end to all debate or action.
2. Not allowing contradiction or refusal; absolute; decisive; conclusive; final.
3. Expressive of urgency or command.
4. Offensively self-assured or given to exercising usually unwarranted power.
Synonyms:
haughty, dictatorial, dogmatic.
Examples:
1) He would dismiss the whole business... with a peremptory snort. (R.M. Berry, "Leonardo's Horse")
2) When she meets with his angry and peremptory refusal, Lucy travels to his country estate; but, entering the woods that surround it, she finds that Charles has defended himself from just such unwanted visits by girding the estate with a number of steel traps. (Henry Alford, "Slaves of the Hamptons", New York Times, August 8, 1999)
3) Peremptory letters from faceless financiers. (George F. Will, "Bunts")
4) And we're provided with mini-narratives familiar even to those with only a passing knowledge of Russian history: the woman who stands day after day outside the political prison in the frigid cold, hoping to catch a glimpse of her husband; the collisions with the imperious and peremptory bureaucrats. (Jim Shepard, "Dead Souls", New York Times, September 26, 1999)
5) The voice that came over the wire was full of grovel and Hollywood subjunctives. It was a voice trained to cut through the din of nightclubs and theater rehearsals, a flexible instrument that could shift from adulation to abuse in a single syllable, ingratiating yet peremptory, a rich syrup of unction and specious authority. (Sidney Joseph Perelman, quoted in the "New York Times", March 15, 1981)
Etymology, related adjective, more examples:
"Peremptory" comes from Latin "peremptorius" ("destructive"), from "peremptus", past participle of "perimere" ("to take thoroughly, to do away with, to destroy; hence, to thwart, to frustrate"), from "per-" ("thoroughly") + "emere" ("to take, to obtain"). "Peremptory" implies the removal of one's option to disagree or contest something. It sometimes suggests an abrupt dictatorial manner combined with an unwillingness to tolerate disobedience or dissent (as in "he was given a peremptory dismissal"). A related term is the adjective "preemptive," which comes from Latin "praeemere" - "prae-" ("before") plus "emere." "Preemptive" means "marked by the seizing of the initiative" (as in "a preemptive attack").


perfervid
[puhr-FUR-vid]
Ardent; impassioned; marked by exaggerated or overwrought emotion.
Examples:
1) Good movies evaporate, while the market is flooded with inanity. Critics can't do much to stop this, but when you read perfervid reviews of the latest commercial offerings it's plain that they do little to cool things down. (Armond White, "Best Movies, Saddest Culture," New York Press, July 5, 2000)
2) Years ago Philip Roth published a perspicacious essay on the pitfalls of writing satire, the gist of which was that the daily absurdities in our morning newspapers too often outdid even a novelist's most perfervid imaginings. (Mordecai Richler, "Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind," New York Times, April 11, 1999)
3) Or under the button-down exterior of a familiar Westchester suburbanite was there a giant cockroach eager to mud-wrestle a man in black? Or was this merely a quirk of Miss Polk's perfervid imagination? (Mel Gussow, "Novelist Fires Off Opening of Fictional Relay on Net," New York Times, August 2, 1997)
Etymology:
"Perfervid" is from Latin "per-" ("through, thoroughly") + "fervidus" ("boiling," from "fervere" - "to boil").


perfidy

• treachery
• treason

1. the quality or state of being faithless or disloyal 2. an act or an instance of disloyalty
Examples:
1) Having just fought a war to get rid of a king, the framers had "the perfidy of the chief magistrate" clearly in their sights when they included broad grounds for impeachment. (Ann H. Coulter, "High Crimes and Misdemeanors")
2) To ordinary Algerians, the news that chemical tests did not end until 1978 was renewed proof of the hypocrisy and perfidy of the military who have misruled them since independence in 1962. ("Bombshell that rocked generals in Algeria", Irish Times, October 25, 1997)
3) Soon Esther has fallen desolately into the arms of her girlfriend, seeking advice and reassurance about the perfidy of men. (Janet Maslin, "Rendezvous in Paris", New York Times, August 9, 1996)
Etymology:
16c.; Latin perfidia, from perfidus ("faithless"), from per- ("detrimental to") + fides ("faith")
Synonyms: treachery, treason



perforce
[pur-FORS]
By necessity; by force of circumstance.
Examples:
1) It will be an astonishing sight, should it come to pass, and even those of us who have followed every twist and turn of this process will perforce rub our eyes. ("Unionists sit tight as the poker game nears its climax," Irish Times, July 10, 1999)
2) . . . the error of supposing that, because everything indeed is not right with the world, everything must accordingly be wrong with the world; the error of supposing that, because we are plainly not a race of angels, we must perforce be a race of beasts. (James Gardner, "Infinite Jest (book reviews)," National Review, June 17, 1996)
Etymology:
"Perforce" comes from French "par force" ("by force").


perfunctory
[pur-FUNGK-tuh-ree]
1. Done merely to carry out a duty; performed mechanically or routinely.
2. Lacking interest, care, or enthusiasm; indifferent.
Examples:
1) The city's moderate hotels, however, tend to offer minimal comforts, perfunctory service and dreary decor. (Paula Butturini, "What's Doing in Naples," New York Times, April 14, 1996)
2) The mainstream media's coverage of hard economic data used to be perfunctory: a spot of news about the direction of interest rates, or a calculation of how the dollar was holding up against the yen. (Robert H. Frank, "Safety in Numbers: The wild stock market is turning us all into macroeconomic-data junkies," New York Times Magazine, November 28, 1999)
3) His hugs, although expansive and affectionate, did not linger, seemed perfunctory. (Susan Bordo, "The Male Body")
Etymology:
"Perfunctory" derives from Late Latin "perfunctorius", from Latin "perfungi" ("to perform fully, to get done with"), from "per-" ("through") + "fungi" ("to perform").


permeate
[PUR-mee-ayt]
1. To spread or diffuse through.
2. To pass through the pores or openings of.
3. To spread through or penetrate something.
Examples:
1) A darkly sweet aroma permeated the air; white orchid blossoms erupted from snakelike vines. (Chu Tien-Wen, "Notes of a Desolate Man")
2) Passers-by could see into buildings through display windows, while the warm glow and sweet smells emanating from the shops and cafes permeated the partly enclosed pedestrian ways. (Larry R. Ford, "The Spaces Between Buildings")
3) The travelers, with their pinched, ferocious expressions and their too brightly glittering eyes, projected an aura of paranoia mixed with anxiety that permeated the bus. (Tama Janowitz, "A Certain Age")
4) The fear of crime permeates their lives. They worry about being mugged ... in a parking lot or while walking home from work. (David J. Krajicek, "Scooped!")
Etymology:
"Permeate" is from Latin "permeare" ("to go through, to pass through"), from "per-" ("through") + "meare" ("to go, to pass").


pernicious

• noxious

[pur-NISH-us]
Highly injurious; deadly; destructive; exceedingly harmful.
Examples:
1) Half-truths can be more pernicious than outright falsehoods. (Wendy Lesser, "Who's Afraid of Arnold Bennett?", New York Times, September 28, 1997)
2) But he said they were not thinkers but snobs, and their influence was pernicious. (Saul Bellow, "Ravelstein")
3) Racism should be condemned because its effects are pernicious. (Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, "Genes, Peoples, and Languages")
4) Farmers stopped using the pesticide after discovering that it had a pernicious effect on some wheat crops.
Etymology, synonym:
When the wind blows ill and wicked, and you need a word for the evil that such deadly currents can do, consider "pernicious" or "noxious"; both describe something exceedingly harmful. Of the two, "pernicious" more strongly implies irreparable harm done through evil or insidious corrupting or undermining. "Noxious" is more often used for that which is offensive or injurious to the health of body or mind. The sense of wickedness in those two words is entwined deep in their histories. "Pernicious" comes from Latin "perniciosus" ("destructive, ruinous"), from "pernicies" ("destruction, disaster, ruin"), from "per-" ("through, thoroughly") + "nex-", "nec-" ("violent death"), which is related to Latin "noxa" (meaning "harm"), the root of English "noxious."

popinjay
[POP-in-jay]
1. A showoff, arrogant person; a fop, i.e. a man who is overly concerned with his appearance; a braggart, boastful person; a vain and talkative person.
2. A parrot (type of bird).
Examples:
1) One popinjay shrieking from the left and another from the right about last week's headlines is not the whole of Washington's political dramas. Occasionally, American politics is more complicated and more momentous. (R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr., "Feds Go Drug Crazy," American Spectator, May 26, 2000)
2) A writer who appreciates the seriousness of writing so little that he is anxious to make people see he is formally educated, cultured or well-bred is merely a popinjay. (Ernest Hemingway, "Death in the Afternoon")
3) The dignified, high density of personality of [Clark Gable and Humphrey Bogart] is completely missing from our popinjay contemporary actors. (Camille Paglia, "Salon", March 1998)
Etymology:
"Popinjay" is from Middle English "papejay, popingay", meaning "parrot," from Old French "papegai", deriving ultimately from Arabic "babagha". Another version is that "popinjay" derives from the Spanish "papagayo", which in turn derives from the Arabic "babagha", which in turn derives from the Persian "babgha" ("parrot").
English speakers now call these birds parrots, but they used to call them popinjays. The first recorded use of the former is from 1525; the latter's first recorded use is from 1270.


poppycock

• stuff
• stuff and nonsense
• hooey
• nonsense
• bull
• BS
• bullshit
• cock-and-bull
• cock

senseless talk
Example:
Don't give me that poppycock
Synonyms:
stuff, stuff and nonsense , hooey, nonsense, bull, BS, bullshit, cock-and-bull

porcine

• piggish

[POR-syne]
Of, relating to, or suggesting swine.
Synonym: piggish.
Example:
Thelma's oldest son was regarded as porcine not only in size but in appetite, and rarely did he leave a crumb on his plate.
Etymology, related words:
Deservedly or not, pigs don't usually enjoy a very flattering image, and they are rarely given credit for their high level of intelligence. Although the word "porcine" is not as negative in tone as "swinish," it may still describe things with the decidedly negative attributes of being greedy, pushy, or generally piggish - but primarily it means simply "fat." Porky Pig, for example, is not typically considered porcine in his behavior, only in his pink and pudgy appearance. "Porcine" comes from the Latin word "porcinus," meaning "swinish," and ultimately derives from the Latin "porcus," meaning "pig." When "porcine" was first used in English in the mid-17th century, it joined similarly formed animal-related words, including "leonine," "canine," "asinine," "vulpine," and "aquiline."


portend
1. to give an omen or anticipatory sign of
Example:
"As for Punxsutawney Phil, the Pennsylvania groundhog saw his shadow this year, portending another six weeks of winter." ("Palm Beach Post", March 24, 2003)
2. indicate, signify
Etymology:
"Portend" has been used in English in the context of signs of things to come since the 15th century. The word derives from the Latin verb "portendere", which means "to predict or foretell". That verb, in turn, developed as a combination of the prefix "por-" (meaning "forward") and the verb "tendere" (meaning "to stretch"). So you can think of "portend" as having a literal meaning of "stretching forward to predict".


portentous
[por-TEN-tuss]
1. Of, relating to, or constituting a portent.
2. Eliciting amazement or wonder; prodigious.
3. Being a grave or serious matter.
4. Self-consciously solemn or important; pompous.
5. Ponderously excessive.
Example:
Saving any species from extinction is a portentous matter, but the Save-the-Owl folks could garner more support with a lighter approach.
History, related words, more meanings:
It's easy to see the "portent" in "portentous," which comes to us from the Latin adjective "portentosus," itself the offspring of the noun "portentum," meaning "portent" or "omen." And indeed, the first uses of "portentous" in the mid-1500s did refer to omens. The second sense of "portentous," describing that which is extremely impressive, also developed in the 1500s. Centuries later, an editor working on the second edition of "Webster's New International Dictionary" in the 1930s added a third definition, "grave, solemn, significant," which has since been refined to include the suggestion of a pompous attitude. We are not sure just when the third sense arose, but our evidence goes back to the beginning of the century. And these days, it's the sense we most often use.

pos
(SMS) parents over shoulder


posit
[POZ-it]
1. To assume as real or conceded.
2. To propose as an explanation; to suggest.
3. To dispose or set firmly or fixedly.
Examples:
1) It is not necessary to posit mysterious forces to explain coincidences. (Bruce Martin, "Coincidences: Remarkable or Random?," Skeptical Inquirer, September/October 1998)
2) Among other things, the researchers posit that the behavior of the muscles during laughter probably explains why phrases like "weak with laughter" pops up in many different languages. ("How Muscles Can Go Weak With Laughter," New York Times, September 14, 1999)
3) Some scientists subscribe to this "catastrophic" view of evolutionary history and posit such events as meteoritic collisions with earth, viral epidemics, and explosive evolutionary changes as responsible for species extinctions in the past. (Noel T. Boaz Ph.D., "Eco Homo")
Etymology:
"Posit" is from Latin "positus", past participle of "ponere" ("to put, to place, to set").


posthumous
[PAHS-chuh-muss]
1. Born after the death of the father.
2. Published after the death of the author.
Example:
At the request of the Dickinson family, Mabel Loomis Todd was responsible for editing the first posthumous editions of the poems of Emily Dickinson.
3. Following or occurring after death.
Etymology:
The etymology of the word "posthumous" tells all. In Latin, "posterus" is an adjective meaning "coming after" (from "post," meaning "after"). The comparative form of "posterus" is "posterior," and its superlative form is "postumus," which means, among other things, "last." "Postumus" was used specifically of the last of a man's children, which in some cases meant those born after he died. Because of this special use, the "-umus" in the word was erroneously identified with "humus," meaning "earth" (as in the ground in which the unfortunate father now lay). The spelling in Latin became "posthumus," as if the word were formed from "post" and "humus," and both the "h" and the suggestion of "after burial" or "after death" carried over into English.


postprandial
[post-PRAN-dee-uhl]
Happening or done after a meal.
1) A gourmand who zealously avoids all exercise as "seriously damaging to one's health," he had caviar for breakfast and was now having oysters for lunch, whetted with wine, as he fueled himself for a postprandial reading at the Montauk Club in Brooklyn. (Mel Gussow, "The Man Who Put Horace Rumpole on the Case," New York Times, April 12, 1995)
2) When I wake up in the morning, I can have my usual breakfast - a slightly bizarre concoction of three kinds of cold cereal topped with grapes and a cup of decaf - and then stagger back to bed for a postprandial snooze. (Sylvan Fox, "It's Less Hectic Staying Put In One Place," Newsday, April 3, 1994)
Etymology:
"Postprandial" is from "post-" + "prandial", from Latin "prandium" ("a late breakfast or lunch").


postulate

• require
• demand
• stipulation

[PAHSS-chuh-layt]
1. To demand, claim.
2. To assume or claim as true, existent, or necessary; to depend upon or start from the hypothesis of; to assume as an established truth (as in logic or mathematics).
Example:
"In order to test our theory," said Detective Higgins, "we must postulate that the victim was indeed acquainted with his killer."
History, more examples, synonyms:
In 1703, the dedication of the "City and County Purchaser and Builders Dictionary" included the following words: "These your extraordinary Favours . . . seem to Postulate from me . . . a Publick Recognition." That's also how the verb "postulate" was used when English speakers first began using it back in the late 1500s - as a synonym of "require" or "demand." (The word's Latin grandparent, "postulare," has the same meaning.) "Postulate" was also used as a noun in the late 1500s, with the meaning "demand" or "stipulation." Today, it usually means "a proposition taken for granted as true especially as a basis for a chain of reasoning."


pot calling the kettle black

• pot calls the kettle black
• pot
• calling
• kettle
• black
• calls
• call

Since most pots and kettles were once made of the same black metal, this phrase is used when you criticize someone for having a fault that you yourself possess.
Example:
Matt and Gino were eating potato salad at a family picnic.
"You're really wolfing it down!" said Matt.
"Listen to the pot calling the kettle black!" said Gino. "You've eaten twice as much as I
have."

potable
[POH-tuh-buhl]
1. Fit to drink; suitable for drinking; drinkable.
2. A potable liquid; a beverage, especially an alcoholic beverage.
Examples:
1) If you drink from the spring, which is shaded by a fig tree, you will supposedly feel younger and more loving. Unfortunately, you may also feel sick: the government warns that the water is not potable. (Gene Burns, "The Stuff of Myths," The Atlantic, September 1999)
2) The park has no showers or potable drinking water - we picked up bottled water in