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单词 p
释义

Pn.

Brit. /piː/, U.S. /pi/
Forms: P (capital), p (lower-case).
Origin: Formed within English, by conversion. Etymon: English p.
Etymology: Letter form. The sixteenth letter of the alphabet in English and other modern languages, p was the fifteenth in the ancient Roman alphabet, corresponding in position and value to the Greek Pi , Π, ?, earlier ?, ?, originally written from right to left ?, and identical with the Phoenician and general Semitic Pēh , forms of which were ?, ?. Letter name. pē is usual as the letter name from at least the 4th cent. in post-classical Latin grammatical writings (and possibly already in classical Latin) and hence in English. Sound. The letter denotes in English the voiceless bilabial plosive /p/, except in the consonantal digraph ph (which usually has the same phonetic value as F n.; see further below) and in certain situations where it is silent. It is silent initially in the combinations pn- , ps- (with the exception of the interjectional monosyllables pshaw int. and n. and psst int. and n.), and pt- (in word elements borrowed ultimately from Greek elements in πν-, ψ-, πτ-; see further below). It is frequently also silent medially between m and another consonant, in words and names where it has been developed unetymologically, as empty , Hampstead , Hampton , Sampson , Thompson , Dempster , Tompkins , etc., and also sometimes in words where it does occur etymologically, as exempt , tempt , peremptory , etc., although in both classes of words pronunciations with /p/ are also found. Abbreviations. In medieval manuscripts abbreviations based on the letter form p (such as those for per /par and pro ) are common. Developments within English. The sound represented by the letter has remained the same throughout the history of English. In Proto-Germanic p represents an Indo-European b ; however, initial b is very rare in Indo-European (and may not have existed at all). Of the Old English words in p , a few were apparently Common West Germanic, and a very few Common Germanic; the origin of many of the remainder is uncertain, but the majority were manifestly borrowings within the historical period from other languages, chiefly Latin. Notwithstanding such borrowings, initial p remained relatively rare in Old English. Conversely, p is the third commonest initial letter in modern English (after s and c ), largely as a result of borrowings from Greek, Latin, and the modern Romance languages (chiefly French), and especially the enormous number of words formed with the Latin prefixes per- , post- , pre- , pro- , and the Greek para- , peri- , pro- , along with words in ph (see note below). There are also very many borrowings from other languages from around the world, and also a not inconsiderable number of words first attested in the Middle English or modern periods which are of uncertain, disputed, or unknown origin (among commoner words compare parch v., peek v.1, pod n.2, pound n.2).The digraph ph . Ph was the combination used by the Romans to represent the Greek letter Φ, ϕ or φ, named Φῖ , Phī . The sound represented by the Greek letter Φ corresponds etymologically to Sanskrit bh (and to Germanic b ); in Greek it was an aspirated p . In early Greek this sound was written ΠΗ ; subsequently the alphabet adopted an additional letter, Φ, to represent it. In the classical period the Romans transcribed this letter by PH. At some stage the sound represented by Greek Φ developed into a labio-dental fricative, /f/. This development may have begun as early as the second century b.c.; it seems to have become widespread by the 2nd cent. a.d., by which time Φ was commonly rendered in Latin by the letter F. The Latin grammarians (from the 2nd cent. a.d.) give rules on when to spell with f and when with ph . Hence in late popular and medieval Latin, and in the Romance languages, f was often substituted for etymological ph , as it is now regularly in Italian and Spanish (e.g. fantasia , filosofia , Filippo , fotografico , etc.). This substitution of f for etymological ph was also found to a great extent in Old French, and in Old English and early Middle English (see e.g. forms s.vv. Pharisee n., Philistee n., phantom n., pheasant n.); but subsequently, under the influence of the Latin forms, most words so written were altered back to ph . (The preponderance of ph is particularly notable in the late Middle English period in e.g. the works of John Gower). In some exceptional cases the f for etymological ph remains in modern English, as in fancy n. and adj., fantastic adj., etc. In all modern words formed ultimately from ancient Greek elements (e.g. in words beginning with phano- , philo- , phospho- , photo- , phyto- , etc.) ph is alone found. One consequence of these conditions was that in the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries, ph was frequently substituted for f in words not of Greek origin, especially in words that were somewhat rare, the scribes apparently taking ph as a more learned, and thus presumably more correct, spelling. Compare e.g. forms listed s.vv. felucca n., fan n.1, fane n.1, fang n.1, firman n., filacer n., filemot adj. and n.; for later retention of such spellings see e.g. filibeg n. Spellings with ph- are usual in the written forms of certain interjections, e.g. phew int., pho int., phoo int., where it is just possible that the spelling may originally have been adopted to represent a bilabial rather than labiodental sound, although this is purely speculative. The symbol ph has sometimes been used for a voiceless bilabial fricative in modern systems of phonetic transcription, as e.g. by A. J. Ellis in the late 19th cent. in his palaeotype (see palaeotype n.), although not in present-day IPA transcriptions. Greek had in a number of words the initial combination ϕθ- , in Roman spelling phth- . See phthisic n. and adj. for the number of different reductions of this sequence found in Latin and the Romance languages. Other English words spelt phth- are more modern technical words (for an early example see phthiriasis n.), and in modern English are pronounced with initial /θ-/ or (alternatively, chiefly in British English) /fθ-/. Ph (pronounced f ) is also used to represent Hebrew פ (without dagesh), and even initial פּ (according to the Masoretic pointing, with dagesh) in proper names which have come into English through a Greek form with Φ: see Pharaoh n., Philistine n., seraph n.1 In the romanized spelling of words in Indian languages ph represents the true aspirated p (फ of Sanskrit), and this is occasionally reflected in the English spelling: compare phulkari n. Regarding the initial combinations pn- , ps- , and pt- , N.E.D. (1907, 1909) recommends (in an individual entry for each combination) that the p- should be pronounced, at least in scientific and technical words, on the grounds that it is pronounced in French, German and other languages, and ‘by Englishmen in reading Greek’, and that its omission tends to obscure the etymology and detract from intelligibility. In N.E.D.'s pronunciations, accordingly, an initial /p/ is marked as an option in all such words. The exception is where initial p- is unetymological (as in ptarmigan n.), and in a few other words in which p- has never been pronounced. In psalm n., psalter n., and words related to them, the initial p- was dropped already in Old English (as in Old French and in other Germanic and Romance languages). In these, p- has been etymologically restored in spelling, but not in pronunciation. This mismatch appears to have served as a precedent for the omission of the p- in the pronunciation of other words. Compare also the Middle English borrowing tisane n. and the spelling history at that entry.
I. The letter P (p).
1.
a. The letter, and the sound it represents.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > writing > written character > name of written character > [noun] > others
Bc1000
Dc1000
ellc1000
Fc1000
Sc1000
yogha1300
Pa1398
ess1540
tee1610
alif1727
cue1755
em1793
en1793
dee1795
double U1841
edh1846
wye1857
vee1883
gee1926
nut1940
kay1959
at sign1977
OE Ælfric Gram. (St. John's Oxf.) 6 Þa oðre nigon consonantes synd gecwedene mvtae, þæt synd dumbe. Hi ne synd na mid ealle dumbe, ac hi habbað lytle clypunge... Þas ongynnað of him sylfum and geendiað on ðam clypiendlicum stafum. b, c, d, g, p, t geendiað on e.
a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add.) f. 187 Þe hebrew hath nouȝt þis lettre P.
1443 in J. Raine Testamenta Eboracensia (1855) II. 132 (MED) I bequethe to Alis Wilughby..xij spones of silver marked with R and P.
a1475 (?a1430) J. Lydgate tr. G. Deguileville Pilgrimage Life Man (Vitell.) 4974 (MED) Ye most ha pes & vnyte; Sych ys ytokenyd by the p.
1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 33 The sounding of this consonant P. P in all thynges followeth the generall rules..without any manner exception.
1574 J. Baret Aluearie P Introd. sig. Ss.ijv This letter p seemeth both by his name and forme to be of kind to b, and as it were b turned vpside downe.
1612 T. Dekker If it be not Good iv. ii. 130 Three Pees haue pepperd me, The Punck, the Pot, and Pipe of smoake.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Twelfth Night (1623) ii. v. 86 By my life this is my Ladies hand:..thus makes shee her [printed het] great P's . View more context for this quotation
1731 N. Amhurst Coll. Poems 17 (title of poem) Crambo-Satyricon: or, a learned, poetical paraphrase on the Christ-Cross-Row. Occasion'd by Col. Platoon's late, ingenious dissertation on the letter P.
1736 R. Ainsworth Thes. Linguæ Latinæ II. (at cited word) P is only a softer b, and b an harder p,..the harder mute before a vowel passing into the softer before a consonant.
a1854 E. Grant Mem. Highland Lady (1988) I. ix. 184 She used to..dash down a very flourishing ‘P’, the single letter that served to mark her name.
1892 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Mar. 409 The inability of Syrian lips to pronounce the letter P.
1925 E. F. Read tr. A. S. de Bustamante World Court xi. 195 The word parties—always with a capital P in the different texts of the Treaty—is used in the other articles and in the preamble as synonymous with states.
2003 Pioneer Press (SE. Minnesota) (Nexis) 7 Apr. 8 a There is no ‘P’ sound in Arabic—a quirk that means Al-Jazeera anchors often report from the ‘Bentagon’.
b. attributive. Designating a language or language group in which ‘p’ is substituted for other sounds; spec. designating the group of Celtic languages in which Indo-European *kw developed into p (see P-Celtic adj. and n.).
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > [noun] > language characterized by grammar or morphology
suffix language1874
P1891
1891 J. Rhys in Trans. Philol. Soc. 1891–4 104 (title) The Celts and the other Aryans of the P and Q groups.
1892 J. B. Johnston Place Names Scotl. 224 Windisch and Stokes' Classification of Celtic languages... The p group, Welsh, Pictish, Cornish, &c.
1900 Contemp. Rev. Feb. 272 Greek may be called a p-language, Germanic a q-language.
1913 J. M. Jones Welsh Gram. 1 Keltic: (a) the Q division, consisting of dialects in Gaul and Spain, and the Goidelic group, comprising Irish, Scotch Gaelic and Manx; (b) the P division, consisting of Gaulish, and the British group, comprising Welsh, Cornish and Breton.
1953 K. Jackson Lang. & Hist. in Early Brit. 3 Until fairly recently, the term Brythonic, coined by Rhys, was regularly used to describe the language brought to Britain by the bearers of that variety of primitive Celtic speech known as P-Celtic... Of late there has been an increasing tendency to use Brittonic instead.
2003 J. McKillop Dict. Celtic Mythol. 320/1 The division of Celtic languages into Q- and P-families depends on whether they retained the Indo-European qu- or substituted a p-.
2. As a distinguishing letter, usually as part of an alphabetical sequence, denoting one of a series of things, a point in a diagram, a sheet in a book, etc.
ΚΠ
1421 in J. G. Edwards et al. Hist. Ess. in Honour of J. Tait (1933) 211 Inventarium librorum..M..N..O..P..Q, [etc.].]
?1541 R. Copland Guy de Chauliac's Questyonary Cyrurgyens (printer's signature mark) Pj.
1684 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 14 783 P and Q are the middle points or Axes, of which P in the foregoing Fig. 2 is denoted by L.
1709 G. Berkeley Ess. New Theory of Vision §31. 31 At O it shou'd..seem nearer than it did at B, and at P nearer than at O, and at Q nearer than at P.
1873 G. Salmon Treat. Higher Plane Curves (ed. 2) ix. 351 To any point P, then, on the Steinerian corresponds a point Q on the Hessian.
a1898 H. Bessemer Autobiogr. (1905) viii. 112 In Fig. 25... cold water is allowed to flow though the pipes P and Q.
1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 511/2 On the more perfect cleavage, which is parallel to the basal plane (P), is a system of fine striations, parallel to the second cleavage (M).
1981 M. A. Parker & F. Pickup Engin. Drawing (ed. 3) iv. 108 Mark off on the bending lines the appropriate true lengths to fix M, P, S, R and Q on the cut-out.
II. Symbolic uses (written without a following point).
3. Chemistry. In form P. The element phosphorus.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > chemistry > elements and compounds > metals > specific elements > phosphorus > [noun]
phosphorus1680
P1814
phosphor1873
1814 tr. J. J. Berzelius in Ann. Philos. 3 54 Phosphoricum, phosphorus (P).
1871 H. E. Roscoe Elem. Chem. (new ed.) 162 Two chlorides of phosphorus are known—phosphorus trichloride, PCl3, and phosphorus pentachloride, PCl5.
1971 M. Alexander Microbial Ecol. xvi. 399 The Si:P atomic ratio varies from 16:1 to 50:1, according to the diatom species.
1994 Sci. Amer. Jan. 139/3 The life we know needs the acid radical of P. Phosphorus is, after all, one of the dozen most abundant atoms of the earth's crust.
4. Science. In mathematical expressions: pressure.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > physics > mechanics > force > [noun] > pressure
sway1565
pressure1660
P1823
mip1961
1823 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 113 422 We have put ρ for the density when the pressure is p.
1845 Encycl. Metrop. V. 262 The pressure for every square unit of surface on this plane is our quantity p.
1978 G. C. Hill & J. S. Holman Chem. in Context x. 132 For n moles of gas, pV = nRT and this is known as the Ideal Gas Equation.
1984 D. C. Giancoli Gen. Physics xvii. 338 At constant temperature, if either the pressure or volume of the gas is allowed to vary, the other variable also changes so that the product PV remains constant.
5. Physics and Chemistry.
a. Usually italicized. Principal: originally designating one of the four main series (S, P, D, F) of lines in atomic spectra, but now more usually designating electrons, orbitals, etc., possessing one unit of angular momentum (as p-electron, p-orbital, etc.).
ΚΠ
1890 J. R. Rydberg in London, Edinb., & Dublin Philos. Mag. 5th Ser. 29 335 A few examples will suffice to show the arrangement and the use of this system. K (D1, 4) denotes the fourth line of the first diffuse series of the spectrum of potassium..Rb (P12, 2) the second doublet of the principal group of Rb [etc.].
1910 W. M. Hicks in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) (1911) A. 210 97 We recognise four typical sequences, the P, S, D and the new F type.., the fundamental or primitive type.
1922 A. Fowler Rep. Series in Line Spectra iii. 15 Three of the chief series were recognised..namely..Principal, Diffuse, Sharp... Rydberg's names..are conveniently abbreviated to P, D, S.
1964 J. W. Linnett Electronic Struct. Molecules ii. 29 In the oxygen atom two 2p orbitals are half-filled..and so..bonds can be formed to two hydrogen atoms.
1983 G. C. Hill & J. S. Holman Chem. in Context v. 60 Calculations show that the charge clouds for p electrons are not spherical, but approximately ‘dumb-bell’ shaped... In fact, each p sub-shell has three separate p orbitals each of which can hold a maximum of two electrons.
b. p-block n. designating elements whose outermost electrons are in p-orbitals, i.e. the elements of columns 13–18 of the periodic table.
ΚΠ
1961 W. E. Addison Struct. Princ. Inorg. Compounds i. 6 Most p block elements are non-metals, whereas such metallic elements as occur therein are perhaps not truly metallic.
1974 D. Nicholls Inorg. Complexes v. 48 Whilst this [valence bond] theory finds great use in organic chemistry and in the chemistry of the main group s- and p-block elements it is now largely unsuitable for transition metal complexes.
1996 M. J. Winter d-Block Chem. (1998) iii. 23 There are well defined rules for the prediction of geometry in p-block chemistry such as the VSEPR model.
6. Seismology. [ < the initial letter of primary adj.] Designating a longitudinal earthquake wave of alternate compression and rarefaction. Chiefly in P wave. Cf. S n.1 6.So named because primary waves arrive at a given place before secondary (transverse) waves.
ΚΠ
1908 C. G. Knott Physics Earthquake Phenomena xi. 199 Although Rebeur Paschwitz had suggested the possibility, Oldham, of the Geological Survey of India, was the first clearly to establish the existence in the complete record of two distinct phases in the Preliminary Tremors.These will be distinguished as P and S.
1936 V. B. Macelwane in J. B. Macelwane & F. W. Sohon Introd. Theoret. Seismol. I. ix. 248 When it became clear that the P-waves were of the condensation-rarefaction type and the S-waves of the shear type, and individual earthquakes had been observed at a sufficient number of stations, attempts were made to draw up time–distance curves for the arrival times and to correlate these with the time of occurrence of the earthquake.
1966 McGraw-Hill Encycl. Sci. & Technol. (rev. ed.) XII. 152/1 The seismic body waves (P, S, and composite types like PS) have predominant periods in the range 1–15 sec, with P and S, respectively, at the short-period and long-period end of this range.
1990 P. Kearey & F. J. Vine Global Tectonics ii. 18 The Gutenberg discontinuity marks the core-mantle boundary at a depth of 2885 km, at which the velocity of P waves decreases abruptly.
7. Chemistry. In form p. [After pH n.] Used to denote −log10c where c is the concentration of an ion expressed in moles per litre.
ΚΠ
1924 N. H. Furman in H. S. Taylor Treat. Physical Chem. II. xiii. 828 By graphic interpolation, plotting—log k against pOH, we find pOH to be 5·1.
1972 Wastewater Engin. (Metcalf & Eddy, Inc.) vii. 255 With pOH, which is defined as the negative logarithm of the hydroxyl-ion concentration, it can be seen..that, for water at 25°C, pH + pOH = 14.
1973 F. G. Shinskey pH & pIon Control in Process & Waste Streams i. 4 Increasing activity is indicated by a decreasing pIon.
8. attributive. Physics. Positive. Esp. in p-channel, p-region. Cf. p-type adj.
ΚΠ
1946 J. A. Becker et al. in Trans. Amer. Inst. Electr. Engineers 65 714/1 The theoretical and experimental physicists have established that there are two types of electronic semiconductors which can be called N and P type.
1962 J. H. Simpson & R. S. Richards Physical Princ. Junction Transistors ii. 21 The two parts [of the crystal] are called the n and p regions respectively.
2004 Electronic News (Nexis) 24 May Its R&D team has achieved a significant performance increase on 45nm p-channel transistors by reorienting the substrate crystals.
III. Simple abbreviations.
9. In form P. A substitution in speech and text for various names (forename or surname).
ΚΠ
1463 R. Calle in Paston Lett. & Papers (2004) II. 289 A writte to a-tache Maistre John P. the yongere, wherof I sende you a copy closed herin.
1599 J. Hoskins Direct. for Speech & Style 15 Mr. P. did wrong to tire this poor figure by using it thirty times in one sermon.
1685 A. Behn in A. Behn et al. Misc. 216 (title) A pindaric to Mr. P. who sings finely.
1793 T. Jefferson Let. 19 May in Papers (1995) XXVI. 62 Mr. P. writes me word that the machine..threshes..64. bushels..of oats an hour.
1880 A. Trollope Duke's Children II. xxv. 293 We won't have either Mr. L. or Lord P.
1995 Daily Tel. 13 Dec. 24/4 Miss P.A. [Name]..is quite wrong to say that Scottish £5, £10, and £20 notes are legal tender in England.
10. Of various English words.
a. In form p. (in plural pp.). Page.
ΚΠ
1629 J. Maxwell tr. Herodian Hist. b j (margin) His [sc. Commodus's] naked Statue (as he plaid the Gladiator) is extant at Rome in the Fernesian Palace. See the Transumpt of it in M. G. Sandy's Iournall, p. 271.
1882 E. B. Nicholson Compendious Cataloguing-rules for Author-catal. Bodleian Libr. 2/2 Among the abbreviations allowable in ordinary entries are:..p. pp. (page, pages).
1989 Jrnl. Musicol. 2 182 The new aria's verbal incipit appears on p. 333 of the Leonore Sketchbook.
b. Music. In form p (without point). Piano, softly (piano adv. 1).
ΚΠ
1724 Short Explic. Foreign Words Musick Bks. 53 The letter P is often used as an Abbreviation of the Word piano: and PP as an Abbreviation of the Words piu piano.
1957 H. Shanet Learn to read Music iv. 123 Between f and p, there are mezzo forte.., and mezzo piano (medium soft).
1977 G. Warfield How to write Music Manuscript 133 Place a ‘p’ under the first note and a ‘pp’ under the last in these two examples.
c. Chess. In form P (without point). Pawn.
ΚΠ
1890 R. F. Green Chess v. 14 An Open Game is one in which the development is effected chiefly in advance of the pawns. P to K4 as a first move on both sides, leads generally to an open game.
1939 A. Alekhine My Best Games of Chess 86/2 K-K4, P-QKt4!..with a won Pawn end-game.
2003 Boston Globe (Nexis) 12 May c8 Deep Fritz programmers found that the p-k4 (e4) opening..was a graveyard against Kramnik.
d. Chemistry. In form p. Usually italicized. = para adj.1 1.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > chemistry > chemistry as a science > naming conventions > [adjective] > independent words
meta1876
ortho1876
para1876
P1899
onium1905
ol1907
oxo1935
nido1967
1899 Jrnl. Amer. Chem. Soc. 21 794 p-Iodobenzoic acid was obtained by the oxidation of p-iodotoluene.
1900 W. H. Perkin & F. S. Kipping Org. Chem. 316 The most usual course in the case of the di~derivatives is to employ the terms ortho-, meta-, and para-, or simply o, m, and p,..para-nitrophenol or p-nitrophenol.
1936 S. Glasstone Recent Adv. Gen. Chem. vii. 273 A study of the rate of quaternary ammonium salt formation between m- and p-nitrobenzyl chlorides and trimethylamine.
1990 EMBO Jrnl. 9 3883/1 Assays measured the rate of p-nitrophenyl phosphate hydrolysis by permeabilized cells.
e. In form P. Prompt side; the side of a theatre stage on which the prompter sits.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > the theatre or the stage > a theatre > stage > [noun] > sides
side-scene1675
side wing1698
slips1771
prompt sidec1782
wing1790
side-slip1808
coulisse1819
prompt corner1872
tormentor1886
P1901
1901 G. B. Shaw Let. 7 Nov. in Bernard Shaw & Mrs. P. Campbell (1952) 14 Titheradge's determination to die parrallel [sic] to the float with his heels O.P. and his head P..rather spoils the picture.
1933 P. Godfrey Back-stage i. 18 The amber circuits in No. 1 batten, floats, and P. and O.P. perches.
f. Genetics. In form P (without point). Parental generation (see quot. 1902).
ΚΠ
1902 W. Bateson & E. R. Saunders Rep. to Evol. Comm. Royal Soc. No. 1. 160 We suggest as a convenient designation for the parental generation the letter P. In crossing, the P generation are the pure forms... Starting from any subject-individual, P2 is the grand~parental, P3 the great-grandparental generation, and so on.
1975 V. Grant Genetics of Flowering Plants i. 9 The experimental results can be summarized as follows: P round yellow × wrinkled green.
1996 Evolution 50 1921/1 The F1 progeny of the P generation were used to form 30 inbred populations and 1 outbred population.
g. In form P. or p. Following after; post (see p.m. adv. and n.1).
ΚΠ
1904 N.E.D. (at cited word) P., p. = past, post.
h. In form p (without point). Passing showers.
ΚΠ
1904 N.E.D. (at cited word) p (in a ship's log) = passing showers.
1939 Geogr. Jrnl. 94 140 Weather shown in Beaufort notation as follows: b = blue sky..p = passing showers; f = fog; m = mist.
i. In form p (without point). Penny, pence.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > money > medium of exchange or currency > coins collective > English coins > [noun] > penny > decimal penny
pence1652
P1909
pee1971
1909 Cent. Dict. Suppl. P,..penny.
1973 Guardian 18 Dec. 13/3 We couldn't get away with a half p in tax evasion—but they do.
1998 Sunday Tel. 25 Jan. (Review section) 24/8 Food and coffee are cheap, with coffees for 95p.
j. Science. In form p (without point). As prefix, in symbols of units of measurement: = pico- comb. form.
ΚΠ
1915 W. H. Eccles Wireless Telegr. & Teleph. 18 Symbols for multiples and sub-multiples..10−12..Pico-..p or μμ.
1940 Chambers's Techn. Dict. 631/2 pF., ., abbrev. for pico-farad.
1974 V. B. Mountcastle et al. Med. Physiol. (ed. 13) I. i. 16/2 This quantity of ions, 10−12 moles..is termed a picomole (abbreviated pmole).
1993 Proc. Royal Soc. A. 442 178 The fastest exposure time realized for Laue data recorded from a protein crystal is 120 psec.
k. Originally and chiefly U.S. slang. In form P. [ < the initial letter of pure adj. (compare also P-funk n.).] Any of various illegal drugs in a particularly pure form, spec. heroin.
ΚΠ
1967 B. Brunner Face of Night 141 We heard he's dealing P.… It's the real Pure, Mr. Ramsey.
2002 N.Z. Herald (Nexis) 11 May Black had developed an addiction to a drug called P or Pure (other slang terms include Ice or Burn). It's a form of methamphetamine, or speed, that is, as the name suggests, purer than other forms available.

Compounds

P boat n. Military a patrol boat.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > war vessel > [noun] > look-out or reconnaissance vessel
spy-boat1637
guard-ship1689
station ship1693
scout-ship1694
guard-boat1696
scout1706
lookout1761
lookout ship1762
watch-boat1789
patrol boat1854
spy-ship1858
picket boat1861
picket launch1864
scout vessel1869
vedette boat1884
picket ship1898
coastal1912
P boat1917
spotter1931
radar picket1945
1917 Braganza (4th Battalion Queens Regiment) Mar. 8 Suddenly there is a rattle of chains and loud shouts in Arabic as a ‘P’ boat with much fuss and churning up of muddy water, casts off from the bank.
1918 Century Oct. 802/2 The steward's story produced many fine reminiscences of the passing of fine ships and brave men..; of ‘Q’ boats and ‘P’ boats and their daredevil crews.
1944 Motor Boating May 189/2 (advt.) Builders of U.S. Army P Boats... Greenport Basin & Construction Company.
2005 C. Henry Depth Charge! iv. 77 Three trawlers and perhaps a P-boat would patrol a square of ocean 20 or 30 miles square.
p-code n. Computing. = pseudocode n.; sometimes also explained as ‘Pascal code’ (see Pascal n. 5).
ΘΚΠ
society > computing and information technology > programming language > [noun] > high-level language
pseudocode1953
source language1959
source program1959
p-code1974
1974 PASCAL Newslet. Jan. in SIGPLAN Notices Mar. 25 The PASCAL-P system is a compiler which generates code (so-called P-code) for a simple, hypothetical stack computer.
1984 Austral. Personal Computer Apr. 167 (advt.) Native machine code (not slow p-code), which runs faster than anything yet seen.
1992 Byte Sept. 274/2 P-code is an old technique for reducing the size of executables.
p element n. [ < p- (in paternally adv., paternal adj.) + element n., with reference to the so-called ‘paternally contributing’ strains of Drosophila fruit flies (bearing p elements), which produce sterile offspring from males mated with females of the ‘maternally contributing strains’ lacking this element, but not vice versa] Genetics the first eukaryotic transposon to be identified, found in Drosophila fruit flies and used as a vector for experimental gene transfer.
ΚΠ
1982 G. M. Rubin et al. in Cell 29 991/2 Five of the mutations were caused by the insertion of members of a single family of elements, which we call P elements.
1990 EMBO Jrnl. 9 3947/2 The hybrid gene was placed within a P element vector..containing rosy as a phenotypic marker for transformation.
1999 J. Weiner Time, Love, Memory 151 In a vial, they mixed a solution of these sticky DNA fragments called ‘P elements’, which would act as shuttles to carry the DNA of interest into the bacterial DNA.
P-marker n. Linguistics = phrase marker n. at phrase n. Compounds 2.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > study of grammar > syntax or word order > [noun] > study or science of > diagram representing structure
phrase marker1945
P-marker1955
tree1958
tree-diagram1965
tree structure1965
1955 N. Chomsky Theory Ling. Struct. (microfilm, Mass. Inst. Technol.) x. 735 We define ‘K is the P-marker of Z’ as: K is the set of strings which appear as a line of one of the members of E, where E is an equivalence class of S1-derivations of Z.
1964 E. Bach Introd. Transformational Gram. iii. 39 A representation of immediate constituent structure for a string, such as is given by a labeled bracketing or labeled tree, is called a phrase marker (P marker).
1976 Language 52 110 A successful asymmetrical derivation rule must operate on a P-marker and not on an individual lexical entry.
p–n junction n. Electronics a transition zone between n-type and p-type material in a semiconductor, which functions as a rectifier.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > physics > solid state physics > semiconductivity > [noun] > transition zone
junction1949
p–n junction1949
unijunction1957
varactor1959
heterojunction1960
homojunction1960
varicap1967
semiconductor junction1975
1949 W. Shockley in Bell Syst. Techn. Jrnl. 28 435 Silicon and germanium may be either n-type or p-type semiconductors... If, in a single sample, there is a transition from one type to the other, a rectifying photosensitive p-n junction is formed.
1997 Electronic Engin. Times 30 June 76/1 We realized you can modify the optical characteristics of silicon in a forward-biased p-n junction through an effect called free-carrier dispersion.
p-process n. [ < the initial letter of proton n.] Astronomy a process believed to occur in stars by which heavy proton-rich nuclei are formed from other nuclei, esp. in circumstances of high proton flux or in the presence of high-energy photons (e.g. in supernovae).
ΚΠ
1956 F. Hoyle et al. in Science 5 Oct. 613/3 At such temperatures (p, γ) reactions occur in a time of the order of 10 seconds, even on the heaviest nuclei (p-process).
1977 J. Narlikar Struct. Universe ii. 50 Apart from these two processes there is a rarer process which produces proton-rich isotopes by exposing the r-process and s-process material to a fast flux of protons or of high-energy photons. This is known as the p-process.
2002 Nature 21 Feb. 882/2 The basic building blocks of heavy elements in our Solar System are primarily made of super-nova (r- and p-process) components.
P trap n. a trap consisting of a U-bend the upper part of whose outlet arm is bent horizontal or nearly so.
ΚΠ
1885 P. J. Davies Standard Pract. Plumbing I. 103 Fig. 205 is the ordinary half ?-trap, wrongly called ?-trap.
1890 W. R. Maguire Domest. Sanit. Drainage vi. 206 No. 1 is the S-trap; No. 2, half S-trap; No. 3, P-trap.
1976 R. Day All about Plumbing 64/1 In a ground floor w.c. it is usual to fit an S trap,..but in an upstairs floor w.c., a P trap is usually installed.
1984 J. Worthington & D. Knight Home Plumbing 77/2 With the ‘P’ trap the outlet is nominally horizontal.

Initialisms

Many of the terms given here without points are also frequently used with points, and vice versa. Less commonly, variation between upper- and lower-case letters may occur where the initialism is not a proper name.
PA n. personal assistant.
ΚΠ
1942 E. Partridge Dict. Abbrev. 73/1 P.A., personal Assistant.
1969 D. Clark Nobody's Perfect ii. 61 Couldn't his P.A. have rung you when you got home?
1988 L. Dhingra Amritvela vii. 25 He's got peons and clerks and PAs who'll get it done in no time.
2003 M. A. Seeley & G. N. Hargreaves Managing in Email Office iii. 38 He dictates an email to his PA and hands her the printed copies of yesterday's emails on which he has annotated his replies.
P.A. n. [ < the initial letters of the name of Pierre Allain (1904–2000), French climber, who invented it; compare French chaussons PA] a canvas climbing boot with a rubber sole reinforced with a steel plate.
ΚΠ
1963 Climber Aug. 11/1 Beginners come to climbing without being aware that there is any kind of mountain footwear other than ‘vibs’—barring..the P.A.'s or kletterschuhe to which they eventually hope to aspire.
1972 D. Haston In High Places ii. 35 Neil and I [were] ahead leaving the other two arguing about who should wear the one pair of P.A.'s. (These are special boots for hard rock-climbing, with stiff, smooth rubber soles and canvas uppers. The initials are those of their inventor, Pierre Allain, a famous French climber before the Second World War.)
PA n. Physiology = plasminogen activator.
ΚΠ
1975 Brit. Jrnl. Haematol. 30 81 Adrenaline, nicotinic acid (NA), vasopressin (LVP) and other drugs affecting vascular motility are known to increase plasminogen activator (PA) and factor-VIII plasma levels in man.
1986 Anticancer Res. 6 861 Several crude angiogenesis preparations..were tested for their ability to stimulate the production of plasminogen activator (PA) and collagenase activities..and clonal growth in cultured endothelial cells.
1996 Amer. Health June 14/1 Last year the clot-dissolving drug tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) was shown to reduce brain damage when given within three hours of a stroke.
P.A. n. political agent.
ΚΠ
1913 E. M. Forster Let. 1 Jan. in Hill of Devi (1953) 25 The Political Agent from Neemuch..brought a party... The P.A...planted himself on the State for the night.
1937 F. Stark Baghdad Sketches 187 [They] send messages to the P.A.
P.A. n. Post Adjutant.
ΚΠ
1904 N.E.D. (at cited word) P.A. = Post Adjutant.
PA n. power amplifier.
ΚΠ
1940 Chambers's Techn. Dict. 608/1 P.A., power amplifier.
1971 Melody Maker 4 Sept. 20 The giant PA's distort their guitars out of all recognition.
1996 B. Duncan in P. Trynka Rock Hardware 88/2 The size and loud bass developed by these speakers caused something of a sensation and at the tour's end, they sold the PA to their support group.
PA n. press agent.
ΚΠ
1921 Broadway Brevities Dec. 35 She brought shows into New York with more front-page spreads than were obtained by all the other p.a.'s put together.
1936 Amer. Speech 11 220 In terms of the theater, the P.A. is the Press Agent.
1958 Spectator 11 July 53/2 The press box was empty except for PA and The Times.
P.A. n. Press Association.
ΚΠ
1915 M. Macdonagh Diary 6 Oct. in London during Great War (1935) ii. iii. 80 My friend Howe, of the ‘P.A.’.
1972 D. McLachlan No Case for Crown iii. 45 I'll deal with the P.A.; their news editor used to work under me.
PA n. programme assistant.
ΚΠ
1968 Listener 4 Apr. 442/3 Four of these programme assistants form the nucleus of Radio Sheffield's staff... My immediate task is to look at the material..left for me the previous night by one of the other PA's.
PA n. (also p.a.) public address; public address system.
ΚΠ
1932 Billboard 16 Apr. 11/4 The performers..could have made a better showing with the p.-a. system brought into use.
1964 S. Bellow Herzog (1965) 35 Over the p.a. system the management begged the spectators not to throw pennies.
1990 S. Morgan Homeboy lix. 362 A voice over the P.A. congratulated the Mid-South Plumbers Association on having fewer Chapter Elevens than any other national trade association.
p.a. n. per annum.
ΚΠ
a1912 W. T. Rogers Dict. Abbrev. (1913) 145/2 p.a., Per annum (For the year).
1955 Times 7 July 1/5 Salary, £1,200–£1,600 p.a., plus free furnished quarters, fuel, light, water.
1991 Economist 5 Oct. 56 (advt.) Thirty-odd years later, Kyoto Ceramics—rechristened Kyocera for short—is a multinational giant, turning over in excess of £2 billion p.a. and making anything from personal computers to cameras.
PABX n. Telephony private automatic branch exchange.
ΚΠ
1923 P.O. Electr. Engineers' Jrnl. 15 309 On P.A.B.X.'s a jack is provided on the manual board for every line.
1976 Eastern Evening News (Norwich) 9 Dec. 16/2 (advt.) Norwich Airport has a vacancy for a temporary Clerk/Telephonist (part-time) involving manual operation of a small PABX switchboard.
1993 Computer Weekly 22 Apr. 30/1 At the heart of CST is an intelligent link between a switch, such as a PABX or an automatic call distributor device, and a host computer.
PAF n. Physiology platelet-activating factor; platelet-aggregating factor; (see platelet n. Compounds).
ΚΠ
1973 Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 70 2814 The studies reported here re-examine the association of bovine platelet-aggregating factor (PAF) and AHF.
1974 J. Benveniste in Nature 7 June 581 Antigen-induced in vitro degranulation of basophils from rabbits immunised with peroxidase yielded a soluble factor (platelet-activating factor (PAF)) which aggregated rabbit platelets in leukocyte-free solutions.
1993 New Scientist 13 Feb. 39/1 Inflammation is caused by some of these substances—notably, PAF, leukotriene C4 and major basic protein (MBP)—damaging the cells that line the airways.
PAH n. Chemistry polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, polyaromatic hydrocarbon, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbon.
ΚΠ
1969 Science 25 July 3891 [He]..related the physical and chemical structural properties of carcinogenic PAH to possible cellular receptors, proteins, or nucleic acids.
1978 Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 75 5841 It is now generally accepted that PAH and many other chemical carcinogens are converted into active metabolites by mixed function oxidases and these active metabolites..interact covalently with biological macromolecules.
1997 Vancouver Sun 27 Jan. a8/5 It isn't known what levels of PAHs are safe in the environment, but even minute levels can lead to deformities of aquatic creatures.
PAHO n. Pan American Health Organization (formerly Pan American Sanitary Organization, see quot. 1959), an agency formed to coordinate and promote the work of health-care organizations in member states throughout the Americas; (in quot. 1958 for PA n., the title of a quarterly publication changed with Vol. 2 No. 4 from PASO Quarterly to PAHO Quarterly).
ΚΠ
1958 (title) PAHO Quarterly. Vol. 2 No. 4.
1959 PAHO Q. 3 (inside cover) At the XV Pan American Sanitary Conference (San Juan, Puerto Rico, 21 September to 3 October 1958) the designation of the Pan American Sanitary Organization was changed to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).
1996 J. McCormick & S. Fisher-Hoch Level 4: Virus Hunters of CDC iii. 35 The terrible epidemic was also compounded by the ineffectiveness of PAHO officials, who had little idea how to cope with the emergency.
PAL n. = permissive action link n. at permissive adj. and n. Compounds.
ΚΠ
1966 Washington Post 26 Feb. a9/2 The reason why the bombs such as those aboard the ill-fated B52 could not be used immediately by unauthorized finders is that before they can be armed two or more persons must receive proper codes, called permissive action links (PAL), to unlock the protective devices.
2003 Indian Express (Nexis) 9 Jan. It is quite possible that Islamabad agreed to accept US technology to ensure that the warheads cannot be used by anyone who does not have the necessary codes, as would be the case with PAL technology.
PAL n. [acronym < the initial letters of phase alternate line (also phase alternation (by) line)] Television the broadcasting system used in much of Europe and elsewhere (so named because the colour information in alternate lines is inverted in phase); cf. NTSC n. at N n. Initialisms 1, SECAM n. at S n.1 Initialisms 1.
ΚΠ
1963 J. R. Davies Understanding Television xiii. 485 Mention must be made of the recently introduced PAL system, developed by Telefunken... The PAL system has been investigated by the European Broadcasting Union... PAL is based on the N.T.S.C. system.
1990 Video Maker May 6/3 For NTSC playback the television must have a PAL decoder capable of auto switching between 525 and 625 lines.
P. & O. n. (also P and O) Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co.
ΚΠ
1857 G. F. Train Amer. Merchant in Europe xviii. 185 When I notice the P. and O. steamers from Hong Kong to Shanghae crowded with Chinese passengers..I can but think that such a taste for travel will increase.
1880 Standard 15 May 5/3 The trim mates of P. and O. liners.
1991 Independent 21 Nov. 8/7 British Airways Holidays and P & O European Ferries..are believed to have paid up to £2m each for ‘preferred partner’ status.
PAR n. precision approach radar.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > discovery > instrument for detection > [noun] > radar system
radiolocation1935
televisibility1940
radar1941
precision approach radar1950
PAR1951
MTI1956
AWACS1966
1951 Gloss. Aeronaut. Terms (B.S.I.) iii. 21 Final controller, a radar controller employed in the transmission of PAR talk-down instructions to the pilot of an aircraft on the final approach to the runway, and in passing monitoring information to the pilot when using a landing aid other than PAR.
1997 AOPA Pilot Nov. 45 During an electrical failure in IMC this (and a precision approach radar, or PAR approach) may be your only ticket to the ground in one piece.
PAS n. Pharmacology para-aminosalicylic acid.
ΚΠ
1946 Lancet 5 Jan. 15/2 Treatment with p-aminosalicylic acid (P.A.S.) was given in three periods with concomitant falls in temperature.
1971 Brit. Jrnl. Dis. Chest Jan. p. vi (advt.) A choice of flavoured drinks..the acceptable way of taking PAS and Isoniazid.
2002 R. Porter Blood & Guts v. 106 Use of streptomycin rapidly led, however, to the emergence of resistant strains, and it was found more effective against tuberculosis when used in combination with para-amino-salicylic acid (PAS).
PAX n. Telephony private automatic exchange.
ΚΠ
1923 P.O. Electr. Engineers' Jrnl. 15 315 These plants are in some cases working as single P.A.X.'s.
1974 P.O. Electr. Engineers' Jrnl. Oct. 19 (advt.) Pye Business Communications' capability in PAX and PABX telephone systems can improve the efficiency of your existing installation or provide you with a completely new system.
2002 Business Communications Rev. (Nexis) 1 Sept. 66 I actually began my career in telecom selling PAXs—Private Automatic Exchanges, which were internal dial phone systems, not connected to the outside world.
PAYE n. pay as you earn, a system by which an employer deducts income tax from an employee's wages before paying them to the employee and sends the deduction to the Inland Revenue.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > fees and taxes > impost, due, or tax > tax > types of tax > [phrase] > income tax
pay-as-you-earn1943
PAYE1944
1944 Times 4 Apr. 2/2 (heading) PAYE begins.
1956 ‘C. Blackstock’ Dewey Death iv. 89 Miss Holmes..[was] doggedly working out the P.A.Y.E. for the thirty members of I.L.D.A. staff.
1991 Which? July 381/1 If you work for an employer, you probably pay tax through the Pay As You Earn system (PAYE).
PAYV n. pay as you view.
ΚΠ
1958 Spectator 27 June 829/2 The need is to make the idea of PAYV much more familiar than it is. There have been many references to it from time to time in the press in the last few years, but for some reason the idea has never caught on.
PB n. (also pb) North American colloquial peanut butter (recorded earliest in PBJ n.).
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > additive > relish > [noun] > spread > peanut butter
peanut butter1896
PBJ1971
PB & J1973
PB1976
1976 Progress Rev. (Park City, Iowa) 1 Sept. 11/4 School lunch menu... Mashed potato, creamed beef, green beans, peach sauce, PB sandwich, milk.
2001 Org. Style Sept. 31/1 My mass-market PB habit (and the guilt that went along with it) were gone the moment I tasted Whole Kids Organic Peanut Butter.
PB n. (also pb) Sport personal best (time or score for an event) (see personal adj., n., and adv. Compounds).
ΚΠ
1971 Cambr. Univ. Athletics Club News 24 Nov. 1 P.b.'s or equal to p.b.'s by our vaulting quartet was a very creditable performance.
1985 Times 21 Aug. 22/5 Modern Pentathlon... Overall Individual: (after three events): 1, A Mizser (Hun), 3292 pb; 2, A Starostin (USSR), 3276 [etc.].
1991 Running Apr. 52/1 Publicity-shy James Zarei is a legend in the world of ultra running. But Gentleman James never runs to win or bothers with pbs.
1999 Athletics Weekly 11 Aug. 19/2 17-year-old Scotcher, winner of the recent European Youth Olympic title, produced her trademark strong finish to get fifth in 54.28—a PB.
P.B. n. ‘poor bloody’; see PBI n.
ΚΠ
1949 F. Swinnerton Doctor's Wife comes to Stay 149 He's only the P.B. Author.
PB & J n. (also P.B. and J., PB and J, P.B. & J. and with lower-case initials) North American colloquial peanut butter and jelly; (also) a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > additive > relish > [noun] > spread > peanut butter
peanut butter1896
PBJ1971
PB & J1973
PB1976
1973 Times Recorder (Zanesville, Ohio) 16 Aug. 3 c/5 Many mothers work and must leave a snack in the refrigerator, PB and J being the easiest.
1997 B. Witt Pan-Asian Express p. xi It's as inevitable as p.b. & j. on a croissant and as imminent as virtual reality.
2004 J. Patterson & D. Campbell Cooking outside Pizza Box iv. 56/1 Even if you've never made anything more complicated than PB&J, you'd be surprised at how easy it is to put together a decent meal.
PBI n. (also p.b.i.) Poor Bloody Infantry, Poor Bloody Infantryman; also in extended use.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > armed forces > the Army > branch of army > [noun] > infantry
foot folkc1325
pedaile?a1400
putaylea1425
foot band1517
fanterie1575
foot1578
foot troop1579
infantry1579
tolpatchery1864
PBI1916
society > armed hostility > warrior > soldier > soldier by branch of army > [noun] > foot-soldier
footmanc1325
page?a1400
pieton?1473
foot soldier1587
rondache1607
peon1609
tolpatch1705
foot wobbler1785
wobbler1785
doughboy1835
fantassin1835
mud-crusher1864
web foot1866
grabby1868
infantryman1883
flat-foot1889
gravel-crusher1889
foot-slogger1894
PBI1916
mud-slogger1936
infanteer1944
leg1969
1916 B.E.F. Times 1 Dec. f. 4/1 So here's to the lads of the P.B.I. Who live in a ditch that never is dry.
1952 Sunday Times 14 Dec. 7/3 Procedural remedies are being sought, mostly by back-benchers—the ‘P.B.I.’ of Parliament.
1972 Guardian 1 Feb. 12/2 In the trenches the PBI..await the order to go over the top.
1990 Guardian 18 Jan. 31/1 Packages are the PBI or ‘poor bloody infantry’ of data processing: they win all the battles and nobody talks about them.
PBJ n. (also pbj) North American colloquial = PB & J n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > additive > relish > [noun] > spread > peanut butter
peanut butter1896
PBJ1971
PB & J1973
PB1976
the world > food and drink > food > dishes and prepared food > bread > bread with spread or filling > [noun] > sandwich > other sandwiches
cheese sandwich1828
bacon sandwich1858
cucumber sandwich1896
club sandwich1903
western sandwich1908
Reuben sandwich1927
poor boy1931
po' boy1932
hero1938
hero sandwich1939
foot-long1941
steak sandwich1941
sub1948
sub sandwich1948
submarine1949
BLT1952
panini1955
tuna sandwich1957
hoagie1967
muffuletta1967
gyro1971
PBJ1971
stotty1971
Philadelphia cheesesteak1977
Philly cheesesteak1982
banh mi1985
1971 Post-Standard (Syracuse, N.Y.) 9 Mar. 5/5 No more PBJ sandwiches.
2002 St. Louis (Missouri) Post-Dispatch (Nexis) 17 Dec. Devotees of Head's featured lunch item—pbj on white—should be prepared for a menu change.
2003 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 8 June iv. 5/6 (caption) My mother made PBJ's with Jif [peanut butter], and out of necessity, I came to like it.
PBS n. North American Public Broadcasting Service, Public Broadcasting System.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > broadcasting > broadcasting service > [noun] > broadcasting company
B.B.C.1923
British Broadcasting Corporation1926
C.B.S.1930
ABC1931
Portland Place1937
Independent Broadcasting Authority1954
ORTF1964
PBS1969
I.B.A.1971
LBC1973
1969 N.Y. Times 9 Apr. 95/4 Mr. Macy said that the corporation would establish, in 90 days, the Public Broadcasting System to allocate time to program producers on the public television network. P.B.S. in effect would be the ruling voice in making final decisions over what went over the network.
1978 Broadcast 16 Jan. 2/3 PBS takes ‘Love for Lydia’... It will be screened on..the [US] Public Broadcasting System.
2003 Wall St. Jrnl. 17 Mar. b1/5 PBS has suggested that member stations extend preschool programming all day long, in the event of war, to create a ‘safe zone’ for children.
PBUH n. = peace be upon him at peace n. Phrases 9. Conventionally placed after the names of prophets in Islam.
ΚΠ
1949 Ramadan Ann. 136 It was our beloved Prophet Mohammed (p.b.u.h.) who said that there will come a time when Muslims will no longer be Muslims—they will not have any sign about them to indicate that they are the Ummat of the Rasoolullah.
1989 Y. N. Kly Anti-social Contract ii. 50 These and other questions were being asked in Europe more than one thousand years after both Jesus (PBUH) and the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) had declared all men equal.
2015 Jrnl. King Saud Univ.: Computer & Information Sci. 27 372/1 Quran verses, Hadeeths of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) or other Shariah sources.
PBX n. Telephony private branch exchange.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > telecommunication > telegraphy or telephony > telephony > telephone equipment > [noun] > exchange
telephone exchange1878
local exchange1879
call office1882
central1883
exchange1887
private branch exchange1904
PBX1914
zone centre1934
1914 A. B. Smith & W. L. Campbell Automatic Teleph. vi. 149 The group of P.B.X. lines is found at the right.
1940 R. Chandler Farewell, my Lovely xxxii. 240 A uniformed man dozed behind a pint-sized PBX set into the end of a scarred wooden counter.
2000 ‘Dr. K.’ Compl. Hacker's Handbk. ix. 139 The reason why phreakers like PBXs is that they carry inbound and outbound phone functions, so someone dialling in is sometimes able to dial out again, with the company owning the PBX picking up the bill.
PC n. (also pc) personal computer; spec. one that is IBM-compatible.
ΘΚΠ
society > computing and information technology > hardware > computer > [noun] > personal computer
home computer1949
personal computer1954
microcomputer1956
micro1971
PC1977
desktop1983
1977 J. Felsen in Proc. Internat. Conf. Cybernetics & Soc. 158/1 By personal computer (PC) we mean an inexpensive but complete system which may be cost-effectively dedicated to..applications of an individual user.
1986 Your Business Mar. 45/1 The functioning of word processors or PCs is only a minute part of the transformation that can be achieved.
2000 CEEmail Summer 15/2 (advt.) This programme is Macintosh and PC compatible and it has a direct hyperlink to the Ollie Recycles Website.
PC n. Police Constable.
ΘΚΠ
society > law > law enforcement > police force or the police > [noun] > policeman
truncheon officer1708
runner1735
horny1753
nibbing-cull1775
nabbing-cull1780
police officer1784
police constable1787
policeman1788
scout1789
nabman1792
nabber1795
pig1811
Bow-street officer1812
nab1813
peeler1816
split1819
grunter1823
robin redbreast1824
bulky1828
raw (or unboiled) lobster1829
Johnny Darm1830
polis1833
crusher1835
constable1839
police1839
agent1841
johndarm1843
blue boy1844
bobby1844
bluebottle1845
copper1846
blue1848
polisman1850
blue coat1851
Johnny1851
PC1851
spot1851
Jack1854
truncheonist1854
fly1857
greycoat1857
cop1859
Cossack1859
slop1859
scuffer1860
nailerc1863
worm1864
Robert1870
reeler1879
minion of the law1882
ginger pop1887
rozzer1888
nark1890
bull1893
grasshopper1893
truncheon-bearer1896
John1898
finger1899
flatty1899
mug1903
John Dunn1904
John Hop1905
gendarme1906
Johnny Hop1908
pavement pounder1908
buttons1911
flat-foot1913
pounder1919
Hop1923
bogy1925
shamus1925
heat1928
fuzz1929
law1929
narker1932
roach1932
jonnop1938
grass1939
roller1940
Babylon1943
walloper1945
cozzer1950
Old Bill1958
cowboy1959
monaych1961
cozzpot1962
policeperson1965
woolly1965
Fed1966
wolly1970
plod1971
roz1971
Smokey Bear1974
bear1975
beast1978
woodentop1981
Five-O1983
dibble1990
Bow-street runner-
1851 Househ. Words 26 Apr. 98/1 A P.C. (the official ellipsis for Police Constable).
1948 Free-Lance Writer & Photographer Apr. 54/2 When a P.C. stops a suspect in the street and interrogates him, [etc.].
1989 C. Harkness Time of Grace xxv. 406 The police turned up almost instantly in the form of P C Higgins, quite an amiable fellow who took reams of notes.
PC n. (also P.C., pc) politically correct; political correctness.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > judgement or decision > discernment, discrimination > criticism > [noun] > types of morality
political morality1721
political correctness1805
slave morality1907
PC1986
the mind > attention and judgement > judgement or decision > discernment, discrimination > criticism > [adjective] > in political context
politico-moral1778
politically correct1970
PC1986
the mind > attention and judgement > esteem > approval or sanction > quality of being approvable or acceptable > [noun] > that which embodies the acceptable > conforming to politically correct views
political correctness1805
PC1986
the mind > attention and judgement > esteem > approval or sanction > quality of being approvable or acceptable > [adjective] > making acceptable > politically correct
politically correct1970
PC1986
1986 N.Y. Times 11 May vi. 39/2 There's too much emphasis on being P.C.—politically correct.
1992 Economist 18 Jan. 44/2 Subjects like science and engineering where the ravages of PC are unknown (or, at least, rare).
2003 This Mag. Feb. Common expressions with racist roots are used by even the proudest of the P.C., while every day, thousands of average joes are slapped on the wrist for using words that sound racist.
P.C. n. Privy Counsellor.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > rule or government > ruler or governor > deliberative, legislative, or administrative assembly > council of state > [noun] > member of council of state > in Britain or England
privy counsellor1598
wite1701
P.C.1881
1881 E. W. Hamilton Diary 22 Nov. (1972) I. 185 I told Mr. G. he ought to make May a P.C.
1973 Whitaker's Almanack 84 The Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, p.c., k.t., g.c.v.o., aged 78.
1994 Calgary (Alberta) Herald (Nexis) 7 Oct. d1 The P.C. stands for Privy Councillor, an honorary title earned as soon as you enter the federal cabinet.
PC n. Mathematics propositional calculus.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > logic > predicate or propositional logic > [noun] > propositional calculus
propositional calculus1903
PC1943
1943 Jrnl. Symbolic Logic 8 81 The propositional calculus, PC, is here construed as an uninterrupted deductive system, determined by certain primitive sentences.
1973 J. J. Zeman Modal Logic xii. 191 The definition of complete modalization was extended to include certain PC theorems.
p.c. n. per cent.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > number > ratio or proportion > [noun] > percentage
centage1756
percentage1757
p.c.1874
per cent1905
1874 ‘M. Twain’ Lett. to Publishers (1967) 80 Bliss had contracted to pay me 10 p.c. on my next book... He paid 7½ p.c. on Roughing It and 5 p.c. on Innocents Abroad.
1931 Notes & Queries 26 Dec. 465/2 A 10 p.c. solution of oxalic acid will be useful if ink-stains be present.
1988 Daily Tel. 7 Jan. 15 [Japanese] life assurance companies, which could previously put only 3 p.c. of their money in tax-efficient tokkins, will be able to invest 5 p.c.
pc n. (also P.C.) postcard.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > correspondence > letter > card > [noun]
card1596
message card1746
birthday card1797
view card1822
acceptance1837
Easter card1842
wedding-cards1847
comic1860
postcard1869
letter card1870
postal card1870
pc1876
postal1877
note-card1884
photo card1890
greeting-card1898
picture postcard1899
seaside postcard1955
sympathy card1967
1876 M. B. Clarke Let. June in T. A. Crow & M. M. Boulton Live your Own Life (2003) 345 I will write you a letter instead of a PC.
1919 ‘K. Mansfield’ Let. 5 Oct. (1993) III. 8 Still there is no news of you later than the 2 p.c.s posted at Vintimille.
1951 R. Macaulay Lett. to Friend (1961) 194 I had..a nice picture p.c. from Father Pedersen from Rome.
2000 Times of India (Nexis) 28 Aug. Having no phone, he used the pc (postcard) and elicited replies from lazy correspondents by a conjoined reply pc.
PCA n. Medicine patient-controlled analgesia.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > healing > medical treatment > anaesthetization, pain-killing, etc. > [noun] > analgesia
analgesia1706
spinal analgesia1912
neuroleptanalgesia1961
PCA1982
1982 Ann. Surg. 195 700 This report concerns evaluation of patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) in the form of two preliminary investigations.
1995 S. B. Nuland Romance, Poetry, & Surg. Sleep i. 19 Experience has shown that PCA provides more effective pain relief and sustained comfort to the patient than the previously used traditional methods.
PCA n. Statistics principal component (or components) analysis (see principal component n. at principal adj., n., and adv. Compounds).
ΚΠ
1968 Biometrics 24 209 PCA of interstitial pH, Eh, free oxygen, carbonate and organic matter indicates three ecologic combinations.
1998 S. C. Morris Crucible of Creation viii. 210 Using statistical techniques such as Principal Components Analysis (PCA), these multidimensional data can be ‘collapsed’ back into two or three dimensions and so plotted as graphs.
PCB n. Chemistry polychlorinated biphenyl.
ΚΠ
1966 New Scientist 15 Dec. 612/3 In Sweden, PCB is known to be used in electrical insulations, hydraulic oils, high-temperature and high-pressure lubricating oils, paints, lacquers and varnishes, and as pigments in various plastics.
1994 M. B. McBride Environmental Chem. Soils x. 380 Highly halogenated hydrocarbons (e.g., polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs) constitute one group of chemicals that is extremely resistant to decomposition.
PCB n. (also pcb) Electronics printed circuit board.
ΘΚΠ
society > computing and information technology > hardware > [noun] > electronic component, circuitry
card1956
circuit board1957
daughter card1964
daughterboard1965
motherboard1965
backplane1972
mainboard1977
PCB1977
board1979
mobo1993
1977 Engin. Materials & Design Aug. 9/2 Thought to be the most powerful calculator/watch combination on the market, hybrid construction is used to mount the chips on a small pcb which also carries a miniature 5 by 4 matrix keyboard.
1997 Electronic Products May 239 (advt.) The pod consists of two PCB boards with allowances to connect to a board for tracing capabilities.
PCM n. Electronics pulse code modulation.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > telecommunication > [noun] > signal > modulation
choke control1909
modulation1919
frequency modulation1922
pulse modulation1929
phase modulation1930
undermodulation1940
pulse time modulation1944
pulse position modulation1945
PCM1947
pulse amplitude modulation1947
pulse code modulation1947
pulse frequency modulation1950
pulse width modulation1953
pulse duration modulation1956
1947 Bell Syst. Techn. Jrnl. 26 395 This paper describes an experiment in transmitting speech by PCM, or pulse code modulation.
1972 Sci. Amer. Sept. 101/2 The most widely used processes of modulation are amplitude modulation (AM), frequency modulation (FM), pulse amplitude modulation (PAM) and pulse code modulation (PCM).
1990 Sun (Brisbane) 17 Oct. 47/6 Digital, or pulse code modulation (PCM), broadcasts will be immune from static and the constant background noise heard on standard AM and FM bands.
pcm n. (esp. of an amount due as rent) per calendar month.
ΚΠ
1969 Times 8 July 19/6 Luxury flat, £24 p.c.m. inc.
2002 List (Glasgow & Edinb. Events Guide) 4 July 129/1 Furnished 2 bed flat,..£650 pcm excl CT + bills.
PCMCIA n. Computing Personal Computer Memory Card International Association, an international trade association formed in 1989 to promote a standard for add-on expansion cards in personal computers; (now more usually) the standard itself (also expanded as Personal Computer Memory Card Interface Association, Personal Computer Memory Card Interface Adapter).
ΚΠ
1990 InfoWorld 5 Feb. 21/4 Peripatetic PC users will enjoy extended battery life with portables based on the low-power storage technology, according to PCMCIA chairman John Reimer, manager of microcomputer and communications products at Fujitsu Microelectronics.
1992 Byte Oct. 105/3 There are hundreds of potential uses for PCMCIA, and I expect to see a lot of them at this fall's Comdex. Stay tuned. The PCMCIA revolution is just beginning.
2003 T3 Mar. 132/1 I..bought a PCMCIA card for my notebook.
PCN n. Telecommunications personal communications network, a digital mobile telephony system.
ΚΠ
1989 Times (Nexis) 4 June Descriptions of how telepoint and cellular technology could be combined into a world-beating national service of personal communications networks (PCNs) that would allow two-way calling from small, light phones.
1998 What Cellphone Aug. (Gloss.) 105/1 PCN, Personal Communications Network. Another term for GSM1800 network—such as Orange or One 2 One.
PCNA n. Biochemistry proliferating cell nuclear antigen; originally called cyclin.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > biology > substance > proteins > [noun]
casein1838
albuminoid1855
xanthoglobulin1868
myochrome1872
xanthoprotein1883
histone1885
globulose1886
phaseolin1893
leucosin1894
nucleohistone1894
nucleon1895
mucoid1898
protone1898
mucinoid1902
myohaemoglobin1906
nucleoprotamine1911
cytozyme1914
leaf protein1917
cytochrome1925
mucoprotein1925
myoglobin1925
flavoprotein1934
oxymyoglobin1935
ferritin1937
lipovitellin1942
arthropodin1947
trypticase1947
erythropoietin1948
phosvitin1948
opsin1951
orosomucoid1955
metallothionein1960
plastocyanin1961
aequorin1962
ferredoxin1962
LDL1962
fetoprotein1964
thioredoxin1964
actinin1965
adrenodoxin1965
lactoferrin1965
myoglobulin1965
rubredoxin1965
uniporter1967
miraculin1968
nexin1970
bacteriorhodopsin1971
molybdoprotein1971
monellin1972
cytokine1974
ankyrin1975
clathrin1975
electromorph1975
tau1975
uniport1975
microtrabecula1976
porin1976
osteocalcin1977
calmodulin1978
monokine1978
PCNA1978
vimentin1978
interleukin1979
laminin1979
titin1979
villin1979
cyclin1981
triskele1981
acumentin1982
perforin1983
statin1985
activin1986
addressin1988
synuclein1988
chemokine1992
1978 Jrnl. Immunol. 121 2233/1 All these lines of evidence suggest that the nuclear antigen reacting with the newly identified antibody is an antigen associated with proliferating cells. Therefore, it is suggested that this antibody might be termed antibody to proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA).
1990 Nucleic Acids Res. 18 261/1 PCNA, or cyclin..is a known cofactor of DNA polymerase d in in vitro replication of SV40 DNA.
PCOS n. Pathology polycystic ovary syndrome.
ΚΠ
1978 Amer. Jrnl. Obstetr. & Gynecol. 130 630 In PCOS, the early phase was relatively large and qualitatively resembled the normal periovulatory pattern.
2000 Here's Health May 86/1 It explains what PCOS is.., how it can cause symptoms such as irregular periods, acne, weight gain, excess hair, mood swings and fatigue.
PCP n. Chemistry pentachlorophenol.
ΚΠ
1958 Jrnl. Amer. Chem. Soc. 80 219/2 The synthesis of pentachlorophenyl nitrate was attempted by the treatment of pentachlorophenol (PCP) with nitric acid.
1992 Do it Yourself (BNC) Oct. 51 This water-based treatment cures and prevents fungus and insect attacks as effectively as any other treatment on the market, but is much safer as it contains no Lindane, PCP or TBTO.
PCP n. Pharmacology phencyclidine.
ΚΠ
1968 Jrnl. Health & Social Behaviour 9 157/2 In the past year alone..at least three new hallucinogenic type drugs have made much heralded..appearances... STP (dimethoxy-methyl-amphetamine), MDA (methylene-dioxy-amphetamine) and PCP, the ‘peace pill’ (phencyclidine).
1990 Sky Mag. Apr. 37/3 Would you board a bus driven by a man who's been jailed for..jumping red lights while high on PCP?
PCP n. Medicine Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > disorders of internal organs > disorder of respiratory organs > [noun] > disorders of lungs > pneumonia > types of pneumonia
typho-pneumonia1854
broncho-pneumonia1858
walking pneumonia1888
virus pneumonia1936
pneumocystis pneumonia1956
PCP1975
Legion disease1976
legionnaires' disease1976
1975 Jrnl. Amer. Med. Assoc. 17 Mar. 1168/2 One of the worst, fastest-moving, and cruelest killers of children is Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP).
2003 AIDS Weekly (Nexis) 2 June 16 PCP ‘remains a serious opportunistic infection in HIV infected individuals,’ immunologists in England explained.
PCS n. Telecommunications personal communications service(s); = PCN n.
ΚΠ
1990 Communications Daily (Nexis) 15 June 8 FCC [Federal Communications Commission] formally opened broad inquiry Thurs. on Personal Communications Network (PCN) and Personal Communications Services (PCS) technology and how Commission should handle spectrum allocation and licenses.
2003 Mortgage Technol. (Nexis) June 62 2G is digital Personal Communications Service or PCS technology, and 3G offers increased bandwidth and speed.
pcu n. passenger car unit.
ΚΠ
1960 J. Drake in E. Davies Roads iv. 85 The term ‘passenger car unit’ or p.c.u. is used in capacity measurements to make allowance for mixed traffic—all motor vehicles count as one unit, except heavy goods vehicles, buses, and coaches which count three. On a road having moderately high volumes of heavy traffic it is found that the p.c.u. count is 50% more than that for motor vehicles.
1995 Jrnl. Operational Res. Soc. 46 983 Suppose the total traffic demand is 10 pcu/h (passenger car units per hour) between the O-D pair, the capacity of each is 5 pcu/h.
P.D. n. preventive detention; preventive detainee.
ΘΚΠ
society > law > administration of justice > general proceedings > arrest > [noun] > custody > type of
free keeping1483
free ward1538
bail1581
preventive detention1858
preventive custody1897
P.D.1956
1956 ‘C. Raven’ Underworld Nights 30 The last I heard of him he was done for pinching a shaving brush from Woolworth's and sentenced to eight years P.D. under the new act.
1999 L. Barnes Flashpoint 178 C–Carlotta, they gave me a P.D. It's all over his f–face how I've got a record and he's defending me because he's got to.
pd n. (also P.D.) potential difference, the difference in electric potential between two points.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > physics > electromagnetic radiation > electricity > voltage > electrical potential > [noun]
tension1785
electric tension1802
potential1828
potential function1828
pd1887
pressure1889
potentiality1898
1887 W. E. Ayrton Pract. Electr. vii. 371 An influence machine can produce a P.D. between its terminals of some hundreds of thousands of volts.
1935 J. N. Friend Text-bk. Physical Chem. II. vii. 297 Experimental measurement of the P.D. between two liquids presents many difficulties.
1963 A. F. Abbott Ordinary Level Physics xxxvii. 487 The terminal p.d. is always less than the e.m.f., and the difference..represents the p.d. required to send the current through the internal resistance of the cell.
PDA n. Computing personal digital assistant (see personal digital assistant n. 1).
ΚΠ
1992 PR Newswire (Nexis) 9 Jan. The transformation from analog to digital technologies opens the possibility for a wide range of potentially very innovative and useful devices that we [sc. Apple Computer Inc.] are calling generically Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs).
1999 Independent 10 Nov. i. 6 (advt.) It has everything you'd expect from a PDA..such as diary, contacts, HTML web browser, and synchronisation with your PC.
2001 Contact May 33/1 Wireless packs—coming this summer—will turn your PDA into a mobile phone.
PDE n. present-day English.
ΚΠ
1989 Language 65 40 Cf. PDE I wanna, I'm gonna, and I hafta.
1999 J. C. Beal Eng. Pronunc. in 18th Cent. v. 121 Neither Walker, Sheridan, Burn, nor any account of PDE shows the rounded vowel.
PDF n. Computing portable document format, a popular format which makes it possible to send documents (which may contain graphics and images) in the form in which they are intended to be viewed, irrespective of the software used to create them.
ΘΚΠ
society > computing and information technology > data > [noun] > format
format1955
SGML1983
Standard Generalized Markup Language1983
Rich Text Format1986
RTF1986
CD-R1988
rich text1988
Hypertext Markup Language1992
PDF1992
HTML1993
dynamic HTML1995
Extensible Markup Language1996
XML1996
MathML1997
1992 MacWeek 16 Nov. 155/1 The first Carousel products, which sources said will ship in mid-1993, will be drivers that let users save documents as Portable Document Files (PDF), plus a viewer application for reading and printing PDF documents.
1996 Internet World Sept. 28/3 Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF) products, which allow PostScript-like display and publishing on the Web, are gaining more of the capabilities of HTML documents.
2003 Buses June 38/1 The pdf file for the route map has simply copied the normal folded leaflet as laid out flat, thus displaying the cover upside down.
PDGF n. Physiology platelet-derived growth factor (see platelet n. Compounds).
ΚΠ
1978 Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 75 2839 There are two sets of growth factors in serum that control different phases of the cell cycle. One set is a heat-stable (100°) platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF).
1999 Daily Tel. 13 Sept. 8/8 This PDGF, called becaplermin, is produced using genetically modified yeast.
PDI n. powered descent initiation (of a spacecraft).
ΚΠ
1969 New Scientist 17 July 115/1 The critical operation is then a ‘three-phase powered descent initiation’ or PDI, the braking manoeuvre which begins at this low point and reduces the vehicle's velocity to zero at a height of around 7000 feet.
1994 Detroit Free Press (Nexis) 10 July 6 When the instruments told them that they were 192 miles from their projected landing site, Armstrong and Aldrin would unleash decelerating thrust and begin slowing their speed for the touchdown. This was it. PDI.
PDP n. Computing parallel distributed processing.
ΚΠ
1986 D. E. Rumelhart & J. L. McClelland Parallel Distributed Processing I. p. x It seemed to us that the phrase parallel distributed processing (PDP for short) best captured what we had in mind.
1995 G. V. Thomas in C. Hollin Contemp. Psychol. vii. 138 These theories have been called variously neural network models, parallel distributed processing (PDP) models or connectionist models.
PDQ n. (also p.d.q.) colloquial pretty damn quick, pretty damned quick.
ΚΠ
1893 Railroad Trainmen's Jrnl. Oct. 854 With hair erect and eyes staring wide, He grabbed a deacon sitting beside, And gave his head a wrench or two, Did the brakemen on the P. D. Q. ‘Twist on them brakes.’ he yelled in fear.
a1901 B. E. Woolf Mighty Dollar in B. H. Clark Favorite Amer. Plays 19th Cent. (1943) 489 That's right, you'd better step P.D.Q., pretty damn quick.
1926 S. Lewis Mantrap xii. 155 The guys..think they can make you P.D.Q., even if they're old and fat.
1995 B. Maitland Marx Sisters 250 Well, we'd better find out PDQ exactly what the Kowalskis' movements were that afternoon.
PE n. physical education.
ΘΚΠ
society > education > [noun] > systematic education > physical education
physical education1748
physical training1839
physical torture1900
P.T.1922
phys. ed.1926
PE1956
1956 J. Edmundson P.E. Teachers' Handbk. vi. 30 Quite effective P.E. lessons can be taken in a classroom even with..very limited space.
1976 ‘W. Trevor’ Children of Dynmouth v. 115 Stringer, the headmaster, was rubbish; the P.E. man went after the girls.
1994 Sunday Tel. (Brisbane) 13 Feb. 22/2 (headline) Why our children duck PE.
PE n. (also p.e.) plastic explosive(s).
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > military equipment > weapon > explosive device > [noun] > plastic explosive
plastic explosive1907
PE1949
plastic1966
plastique1968
Semtex1985
1949 F. S. Chapman Jungle is Neutral ii. 19 We piled the dicky high with Tommy-guns, cases of P.E. (plastic high explosive), grenades, and an assortment of demolition and incendiary devices.
1971 P. O'Donnell Impossible Virgin xiii. 261 He had some fuse and plastic explosive, but..using p.e. to set off a bullet would produce the wrong sort of noise.
2002 Afr. News (Nexis) 12 Feb. Kitur: ‘We use detonators.’ Wilkinson: ‘That is ludicrous. What is used in the making of bombs? What is the main explosive?’ Kitur: ‘We use PE, plastic explosives.’
p/e n. (also P/E) Stock Market = p/e ratio n.
ΚΠ
1969 Sunday Times 20 Apr. 27 It comes as a pleasant surprise to find this Scots conglomerator bringing Scottish, English and European textiles to the market on a modest..forward P/E of 11.6.
1990 European Investor Spring 37/2 In 1989 it was possible to make money almost purely on the basis of fundamental growth prospects, virtually neglecting the p/e of the stock.
PEG n. Chemistry polyethylene glycol.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > chemistry > polymer chemistry > polymers (named others) > [noun] > polyethylene glycol
polyethylene alcohol1862
polyethylene glycol1886
polyglycol1889
PEG1959
1959 Analyt. Chem. 31 1375 This method separates vitamin A and vitamin D on a partition column using..polyethylene glycol 600 (PEG 600) as the immobile phase.
1997 New Scientist 17 May 20/2 The Food and Drug Administration has already approved the use of PEG coatings to protect certain proteins from antibody attack in people with rare conditions such as adenosine deaminase deficiency.
PEN n. International Association of Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists, and Novelists.
ΚΠ
1923 Times 24 Apr. 15/1 Correspondence... The P.E.N. Club (Mr Galsworthy).
1969 L. Hellman Unfinished Woman xiii. 195 A reception for the president of PEN, an Englishman.
2000 C. Newland & K. Sesay IC3 452 He is a co-ordinator of the African Literature Forum, as well as the Writers in Exile Programme of International PEN.
PEP n. Radio and Television peak envelope power (of a transmitter or signal).
ΚΠ
1956 Proc. IRE 44 1710/1 For a 0·5 watt SSB signal (1w PEP) there is 0·095 watt in the AM component.
1971 Gloss. Electrotechnical, Power Terms (B.S.I.) iii. vii. 23 Peak envelope power; P.E.P. of a radio transmitter. The power supplied to the aerial transmission line or specified artificial load by a transmitter during one radio frequency cycle at the highest crest of the modulation envelope, taken under conditions of normal operation.
1982 Giant Bk. Electronics Projects vii. 288 My TV is only a mere ten feet from the antenna and I run a 200 watts PEP.
PEP n. Political and Economic Planning.
ΚΠ
1933 Planning vi. 15 They began more than two years ago to study..the possibilities of renewing friction in..industry, agriculture, finance, the social services... The PEP budget..is raised entirely from among those interested in the work.
1941 J. S. Huxley Uniqueness of Man xi. 233 It [sc. group work] is far more necessary in social science, where various bodies, such as P.E.P., are studying how to perfect it as a research method.
1982 Policy Rev. (Nexis) Spring 115 The Swedish model..drew the admiring attention of two left-leaning think tanks—the New Fabian Research Bureau and P.E.P. (Political and Economic Planning).
p/e ratio n. (also P/E ratio) Stock Market price-earnings ratio (of a share).
ΚΠ
1950 Jrnl. Finance 5 393 Put in terms of the more familiar Price-Earnings ratio, the maximum P/E ratio which can prevail and still obtain safety of principal, when bonds are yielding 3 per cent, would be 16.6.
1990 Which? Dec. 704/2 Dividing the share price by the earnings per share gives you the PE ratio.
PERT n. Business (originally U.S.) programme evaluation and review technique (originally, programme evaluation research task), a form of network analysis used esp. to deal with events of uncertain duration.
ΚΠ
1959 Amer. Statistician Apr. 10/1 This Program Evaluation and Review Technique (code-named PERT) is applied as a decision-making tool designed to save time in achieving end-objectives.
1969 J. Argenti Managem. Techniques 72 The technique known as PERT..is used when the duration of an activity is not accurately known.
1994 T. Byrne Local Govt. in Brit. (ed. 6) x. 279 This procedure can give rise to a number of ancillary techniques such as critical path analysis (CPA), programme evaluation and review (PERT) and resources allocation and multi-project scheduling (RAMPS).
PESC n. British Politics Public Expenditure Survey Committee.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > rule or government > ruler or governor > deliberative, legislative, or administrative assembly > types of body or spec. bodies > [noun] > committee > other types of committee
committee1571
council of war1590
special committee1606
standing committeea1632
Committee of Safety1642
working party1744
finance committee1783
Board (also Court) of county commissioners1806
business committee1825
national committee1826
watch committee1835
working group1888
Central Committee1917
action committee1918
action group1927
ombuds-committee1964
PESC1969
1969 Times 6 Nov. 10/6 There are hints and leaks which show that key decisions are being taken and the mysterious initials P.E.S.C. (Public Expenditure Survey Committee) are bandied about.
1976 H. Wilson Governance of Brit. iii. 61 This meeting or ‘PESC’ was concerned not with detailed allocations of expenditure, as finally announced in February 1976, but with basic priorities.
1991 J. Kingdom Local Govt. & Politics in Brit. xi. 187 The global size of the block grant is determined by the Public Expenditure Survey Committee (PESC) process, which fixes the expenditure levels of all government programmes.
PET n. polyethylene terephthalate.
ΚΠ
1965 Analyt. Chem. 37 1307/3 The saponification of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) may be represented as follows.
1991 Garbage Jan. 35/1 The..facility, capable of recycling 24 million pounds of PET a year, was an investment of $3.3 million.
PET n. Medicine positron emission tomography (frequently in PET scan).
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > healing > diagnosis or prognosis > radiography or radiology > [noun] > specific techniques
fluorography1896
fluoroscopy1896
Roentgenism1898
roentgenoscopy1903
skiascopy1908
teleradiography1908
teleroentgenography1908
orthoroentgenography1911
pneumography1921
stereofluoroscopy1928
kymography1930
tomography1935
photofluorography1941
neutron radiography1948
pantomography1952
photofluoroscopy1955
orthopantomography1959
panography1961
stereoradiography1965
computerized axial tomography1973
computed tomography1974
computerized tomography1974
CT1974
positron emission tomography1976
PET1979
the world > health and disease > healing > diagnosis or prognosis > radiography or radiology > [adjective] > using specific techniques
fluoroscopic1896
roentgenographic1906
stereofluoroscopic1928
tomographic1935
planigraphic1936
photofluorographic1941
orthoroentgenographic1946
panographic1952
pantomographic1952
pantomographical1952
radiopharmacological1963
CT1974
CAT1975
computed tomographic1975
PET1979
1975 M. M. Ter-Pogossian et al. in Radiol. 114 90/2 We call this apparatus a positron emission transaxial tomograph (PETT).]
1979 Brain Res. (Reviews) 180 48 The concept of positron emission tomography (PET).
1993 Chicago Tribune 13 Apr. i. 4/6 Using PET scans..to follow the brain's consumption of sugar..he measured the activity level of brains at all ages.
2001 National Post (Canada) 20 Mar. a7/6 Dr. Schumacher cited the example of the PET scan, a new diagnostic machine used to determine whether tumours are malignant or spreading.
PET n. (also Pet, pet) British Finance = potentially exempt transfer n. at potentially adv. Compounds.
ΚΠ
1986 Guardian 26 Apr. 26/2 Providing the transferer survives the PET by seven years, no tax liability will arise.
2002 Which? Tax Saving Guide 60/3 On your death, all Pets and other taxable lifetime gifts you made in the previous seven years are treated as part of your estate.
PETA n. U.S. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, an international organization founded in the U.S. in 1980 to campaign for the establishment and protection of animal rights.
ΚΠ
1980 Washington Post (Nexis) 28 June a17 What PETA's protesters should do, if they really want to be aware of chickens, is spend the rest of the summer on a farm.
2003 Amer. Enterprise (Nexis) 1 June 8 In their new ‘Viva Las Veggies’ campaign to promote vegetarianism, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) argues against eating steaks and pork chops because they could make you fat.
PETN n. Chemistry = pentaerythritol tetranitrate n. at pentaerythritol n. Compounds.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > chemistry > organic chemistry > organic salts > [noun] > miscellaneous others
alum zucarinea1425
white precipitate1588
volatile salt or salts1639
malate1788
oxalate1788
sebate1788
succinate1789
camphorate1800
suberate1800
tannate1802
formate1807
zymate1817
uranate1819
ambreate1820
fungate1821
hydriodide1823
sorbate1823
fulminate1824
uraniate1824
pinate1829
oleate1831
pectate1831
resinate1831
xanthate1831
formobenzoate1834
racemate1835
indigotate1838
japonate1838
oxalhydrate1838
oxalovinate1838
palmate1838
pyruvate1838
roccellate1838
rubinate1838
verdite1838
oxalurate1839
sesquisalt1839
palmitate1840
rhabarbarate1840
hippurate1841
palmitin1841
sericate1841
stearate1841
oenanthylate1843
humate1844
parabanate1844
urethylane1844
angelate1846
fungiate1847
nitroprusside1849
sodium nitroprusside1849
fulminurate1855
igasurate1855
inosinate1855
phenate1857
sinapate1857
styphnate1857
anchoate1858
parellate1858
toluate1860
piperate1862
fumarate1864
glycollate1864
hydurilate1865
hyoglycocholate1865
isamates1865
itaconates1865–72
paralactate1866
porphyrate1866
usnate1866
thebolactate1867
oxalonitrate1868
rhodanate1868
stearerate1868
terebate1868
terephthalate1868
thymotate1868
turpetholate1868
violurate1868
viridate1868
xanthide1868
glycocholate1872
xylate1872
xylidate1872
tiglate1875
peptonate1876
hydracrylate1877
thymolate1880
formamidine1882
carboxylate1884
nucleate1896
phytin1905
cacodylate1908
cupferron1910
protamine sulphate1915
metallic soap1918
pentaerythritol tetranitrate1923
phosphagen1927
phosphocreatine1927
viologen1933
pentachlorophenate1938
hyaluronate1946
tetraethylpyrophosphate1947
pteroylglutamate1948
inosate-
1944 Industr. & Engin. Chem. (Industr. ed.) 36 82 (caption) Detonation wave in a column of trinitrotoluene... PETN primer.
2002 Washington Post 4 Jan. a12/1 Preliminary FBI tests on the shoes detected the presence of the compound PETN (pentaerythritol tetranitrate), one of the most powerful bases of plastic explosives.
pf n. (also PF) Music (a) pianoforte; (b) [initialism < Italian piano forte] soft then loud; (c) [initialism < Italian più forte] more loudly.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > music > written or printed music > directions > [adverb] > for volume
forte1724
fortissimo1724
pf1724
più piano1724
piano1762
rinforzando1775
crescendo1776
mancando1786
sforzando1786
sforzato1786
forzando1828
society > leisure > the arts > music > musical instrument > keyboard instrument > stringed keyboards > [noun] > pianoforte
pf1724
pianoforte1741
fortepiano1769
piano1772
joanna1846
music box1850
box1902
1724 Short Explic. Foreign Words Musick Bks. 32 Piu forte, or PF, is a Degree louder than forte only.
1876 J. Stainer & W. A. Barrett Dict. Musical Terms 348/2 P.f., abb. of (1) Pianoforte. (2) Piano, forte, soft then loud. (3) Più forte, louder.
1938 R. E. M. Harding Origins Musical Time & Expressions 102 In this same work..are found PFs on single held semibreves.
1999 Ventura County Star (Calif.) (Nexis) 5 Nov. 16 ‘Pf’ stands for pianoforte. We thought it sounded intellectual.
PFA n. (also pfa) pulverized fuel ash.
ΚΠ
1958 Archit. Rev. 123 326 The ground-floor walls are of cavity construction with an inner skin of insulating p.f.a. blocks and yellow bricks outside.
1970 Sci. Jrnl. Aug. 78/2 Marketing officers of the CEGB are today developing PFA sales for a wide range of civil engineering and building activities.
1991 New Civil Engineer 3 Oct. 11 (advt.) Pulverised Fuel Ash (PFA) has been used successfully for many years as the ideal grouting material and is recognised as the number one in its field.
PFC n. (also Pfc) U.S. (chiefly Military slang) poor foolish (or forlorn, etc.) civilian.
ΚΠ
1947 Amer. Speech 22 112 References to rates and ranks are numerous. One variously caricatures P.F.C. (‘private first class’) as ‘poor foolish civilian’... A double P.F.C., however, is a corporal, since he has two chevrons on his sleeve.
1955 Daily Progress (Charlottesville, Va.) 24 Aug. 18/1 Pfc's with PhD's teach generals and others the fundamentals of atomic weapons.
1963 T. Pynchon V. i. 13 ‘I would like to sing you a little song.’ ‘To celebrate your becoming a PFC’ said Ploy... ‘Pore Forlorn Civilian, We're goin to miss you so.’
PFC n. (also Pfc) U.S. Military Private First Class.
ΚΠ
1941 Amer. Speech 16 167/2 PFC, Private 1st Class.
1977 ‘E. McBain’ Long Time no See xii. 198 ‘A man named James Harris, served with the Army.’.. ‘Rank?’ ‘Pfc.’
2003 Times (Nexis) 3 Apr. 3 PFC Lynch, 19, a supply clerk with the US Army's 507th Maintenance Company, was plucked from her bed in the Saddam Hospital in al-Nasiriyah.
PFD n. personal flotation device (see personal adj., n., and adv. Compounds).
ΚΠ
1982 Offshore (Nexis) Dec. In the Minnesota studies, volunteer subjects wore traditional ‘horse-collar’ PFDs, insulated flotation jackets, or full body deck (survival type) suits while floating in a cold-water research tank.
1988 S. E. McKay New Child Safety Handbk. x. 150/2 A Personal Flotation Device (PFD) is lightweight, fits like a jacket, and will keep a conscious child afloat. It is not a life jacket, however, and will not provide the same amount of buoyancy.
2001 Canoe & Kayak Mar. 70 I pulled on my neoprene gloves, cinched my PFD, and checked the throw bag.
PFI n. British private finance initiative, an initiative introduced in 1992 to use private sector finance to supplement public sector investment in public services.
ΚΠ
1993 Scotl. on Sunday 7 Nov. (Business week) 3/1 They are among proposals, including a submission from Royal Bank of Scotland, to inject life into the government's Private Finance Initiative, PFI, to ease the burden of public borrowing.
2000 Bath Chron. (Electronic ed.) 29 July The consortium is building three new schools in north Wiltshire as part of the PFI project.
PG n. originally North American parental guidance (a film or video classification indicating that some parents may find the film unsuitable for their children).
ΚΠ
1972 New Acronyms & Initialisms (Gale Research Co.) 81/2 PG, parental guidance suggested (some material may not be suitable for pre-teenagers) (movie rating).
1976 New Yorker 12 Jan. 70/2 Why would anybody want a PG-rated Peckinpah film?
1994 Winnipeg Free Press 1 Oct. b1/4 In Manitoba the video release has been rated ‘PG (Parental Guidance); not suitable for young children’.
PG-13 n. U.S. parental guidance, inappropriate for children under 13 (a film or video classification).
ΚΠ
1984 N.Y. Times 17 Aug. c16/1 Fri. Sat. Sun. Woman in Red (PG-13).
2003 Milwaukee (Wisconsin) Jrnl. Sentinel 3 June 6 b The trend we're seeing is that moviemakers are willing to cut back on violence and sexual content to acquire the PG-13 rating.
PGCE n. Education (British and Irish English (northern)) Postgraduate Certificate of (or in) Education, a teaching qualification gained on completion of a one-year postgraduate course; the course itself.
ΚΠ
1975 Brit. Jrnl. Teacher Educ. 1 83 Concurrent students are rated more favourably by their supervisors than consecutive (PGCE) trained students.
1991 Times Educ. Suppl. 22 Feb. 21/1 Primary PGCE courses give too little training to make teachers effective subject co-ordinators.
PGR n. [ < German p.g.R. (O. Veraguth 1907, in Monatsschr. f. Psychiatrie u. Neurol. 21 387), initialism < pyschogalvanischer Reflex] Psychology psychogalvanic reflex (or response).
ΚΠ
1938 R. S. Woodworth Exper. Psychol. xiii. 277 The name ‘psycho~galvanic reflex’ was introduced by Veraguth.., who made a comprehensive study of the Féré effect... In the present chapter we will call it PGR.
1949 Brit. Jrnl. Psychol. 40 86 When the individuals' P.G.R. scores are obtained for a given attitude they must be expressed for each person relative to his own general P.G.R. reactivity.
2000 Jrnl. Parapsychol. (Nexis) 1 June 139 Additionally, terms like galvanic skin response (GSR) or psychogalvanic response (PGR) should no longer be used, as they do not describe the applied measurement principle in a sufficient way.
PhD n. (also Ph.D.) [shortened < post-classical Latin Philosophiae Doctor (from 1576 with reference to German universities)] Doctor of Philosophy; Doctorate of Philosophy.
ΘΚΠ
society > education > educational administration > university administration > taking degree or graduation > [noun] > degree holder
master1380
bachelorc1386
doctorc1400
magister1459
sir1557
Dra1593
doctorate1651
baccalaur1661
baccalaureate1696
formed bachelor1738
middle bachelor1759
Mus.B.1801
PhD1839
diplomate1879
maid1881
Mus. Bac.1889
postdoctoral1962
postdoc1964
B.A.-
B.L.-
society > education > educational administration > university administration > taking degree or graduation > [noun] > a degree > specific
masterdomc1400
doctorship1533
doctorate?1577
mastership1583
baccalaureate1625
bachelorshipa1656
doctorhood1683
LL.D.1763
master's degree1774
LL.B.1796
Mus.B.1801
PhD1839
Lambeth degree1859
baccalaureate degree1864
LL.M.1874
(Lady) Literate in Arts1877
Sc.D.1885
Mus. Bac.1889
post-graduation1889
B.Lit.1895
masterate1902
B.Phil.1923
B. Ed.1941
ABD1954
Dip. Tech.1957
master1960
B.Sc.-
1839 Jrnl. Royal Geogr. Soc. 9 p. xlii Hooker, Sir Wm. Jackson, Ph.D.
1903 W. James Mem. & Stud. (1911) 331 A Ph.D. in philosophy would prove little..as to one's ability to teach literature.
2002 Guardian 13 May ii. 8/5 Allwood has..disenrolled herself from Keele University where she was doing a PhD on the culture of Christmas in Victorian writing.
P.I. n. U.S. slang pimp.
ΘΚΠ
society > morality > moral evil > licentiousness > unchastity > prostitution > [noun] > pimping or procuring > procurer of either sex > pimp
putourc1390
panderc1450
mitchera1500
apple-squire?1536
squire of dames or ladies1590
apron-squire1593
bed-broker1594
pimp1600
pippin squire1600
petticoat-monger1605
smockster1608
underputter1608
broker-between1609
squire of the placket1611
squire1612
fleshmongera1616
cock bawd1632
whiskin1632
pimp-whiskin1638
bully1675
foot pimp1690
mutton-broker1694
pimp whisk1707
flash-man1789
panderer1826
bludger1856
whoremaster1864
mack1894
lover1904
jelly bean1905
procureur1910
P.I.1928
sweetback1929
sweet man1942
nookie-bookie1943
papasan1970
1928 C. McKay Home to Harlem xvi. 240 ‘What's he work at?’ asked Ray. ‘Nothing menial. He's a p-i.’
1931 G. Irwin Amer. Tramp & Underworld Slang 144 P.I., a pimp or pander, merely a euphemism by contraction.
1970 C. Major Dict. Afro-Amer. Slang 90 P.I., pimp.
PI n. (also p.i.) private investigator.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > enquiry > investigation, inspection > secret observation, spying > procedures used in spying > [noun] > private detection > person engaged in
private detective1857
eye1874
Pinkerton1877
ferret1891
consultant1894
private investigator1894
Sherlock Holmes1896
operative1901
Sherlock1903
Sherlockian1903
Pink1904
peeper1908
private dick1912
op1924
shamus1925
private eye1938
PI1953
peep1974
1953 R. Chandler Long Good-bye ii. 7 A P.I. picking up a client.
1973 Publishers Weekly 13 Aug. 48/3 This is the third p.i. mystery featuring Shock and his partner.
1994 Film Focus Dec. 54/1 The..movie is far more up-beat than Cosy and Culp's last pairing as down in the mouth PI's, Hickey & Boggs.
PI n. = principal investigator n. at principal adj., n., and adv. Compounds.
ΚΠ
1966 Amer. Documentation Apr. 91/1 (figure) Principal Investigator (PI).
1976 D. F. Hornig et al. Institutional Arrangem. Space Telescope Preface p. iii By and large this has involved the designation of a principal investigator ( pi) who is responsible for the scientific conduct of the mission.
2015 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 3 Dec. 30/4 Remarkably, though PIs, to conduct studies, must regularly undergo testing about research ethics, no such requirements exist for IRB chairs, members, or staff.
PIA n. British Finance (now historical) Personal Investment Authority, a regulatory body set up to monitor the sale and marketing of investment and savings products to the public (in 2001, its work was subsumed within the Financial Services Authority).
ΚΠ
1992 PR Week (Nexis) 4 June Existing self-regulatory organisations (SROs), including Fimbra and Lautro, are to be merged under one new body—the Personal Investment Authority. The PIA will have to work to keep a clear distinction between company representatives and independent financial advisers.
2001 Financial Times 27 Jan. 4/1 Amanda Davidson, a senior adviser at Holden Meehan and a director of the PIA, which regulates sales by Equitable, said many policyholders aged over 50 could get out of the insurer without paying a penalty.
PIB n. Prices and Incomes Board.
ΚΠ
1966 Times 11 Jan. 8/7 Costs which have already been incurred do not take into account any further costs arising from the P.I.B.'s report, when eventually this is forthcoming.
2002 Heritage Found. Rep. (Nexis) Jan. vi. 191 In 1973, Fiji established a Prices and Incomes Board (PIB) with the authority to impose wage freezes and price controls on a number of commodities.
PID n. Medicine pelvic inflammatory disease.
ΚΠ
1959 Obstetr. & Gynecol. 14 417/1 At Harlem Hospital it has always been more or less axiomatic to believe that women do not suffer PID during pregnancy.
1995 Daily Tel. 25 July 14/6 If the organism [sc. chlamydia] moves up from the vagina into the womb and Fallopian tubes it can cause pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), which carries an increased risk of infertility and ectopic pregnancy.
PID n. Electronics proportional, integral, derivative (or differential), designating a controller which employs these three methods of control action.
ΚΠ
1968 Control Engin. 15 83/2 The author describes how the graphs..are used to get a faster response than is ordinarily obtained with PID controllers.
1991 Hydrocarbon Processing May 25/1 A half a century or so ago, the proportional, integral and derivative (PID) control algorithms were developed to hold process variables (temps, pressures, flow, etc.) at targets (setpoints).
PIDE n. [ < Portuguese PIDE, initialism < Polícia Internacional e de Defesa do Estado] International Police for the Defence of the State.
ΚΠ
1959 Listener 9 July 45/1 The widespread activities of the state security police, known as PIDE.
1999 Amer. Hist. Rev. 104 1017/2 The one weakness of Costa Pinto's study is his tendency to minimize the significance of the fascist institutions created by the regime: the political police (PIDE), the Portuguese Legion, the youth organization, the state-controlled unions, etc.
PIE n. Linguistics proto-Indo-European.
ΚΠ
1947 Language 23 8 (table) PIE, Proto-Indo-European.
1964 Language 40 140 A typical phonemic analysis of the PIE vowels in laryngealist terms.
2001 Archaeology Mar. 76/2 These three languages, he proposed, had developed from a single ultimate parent langue, now called Proto-Indo-European (PIE).
PIM n. Computing personal information manager; personal information management.
ΚΠ
1987 InfoWorld (Nexis) 5 Oct. 3 Pointing to a similarity that he said exists between Personal Information Manager (PIM) and Lotus 1-2-3's capability to recalculate data, Manzi said that when text in PIM is changed, the program ‘automatically reformats the category assigned to (that data).’
2001 Contact May 14/1 Though it has email and PIM functions, it is a phone with PDA functionality rather than a PDA with phone functionality.
PINC n. (also Pinc, pinc) (also with pronunciation
Brit. /pɪŋk/
,
U.S. /pɪŋk/
) property income certificate.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > stocks and shares > stocks, shares, or bonds > [noun] > certificates
trust certificate1720
scrip?1734
script1768
savings certificate1842
stock certificate1863
PINC1986
property income certificate1986
1986 Estates Gaz. 28 June 1470/4 Property Income Certificates—PINCs for short—are a completely new investment vehicle and would require setting up a special market to trade in the units.
1988 Daily Tel. 13 Sept. 26/1 Taylor Woodrow's decision to take profits from its St Katharine's Dock development, by offering the World Trade Centre building for unitisation through property income certificates (pincs) has surprised many in the City.
PIRA n. (also pira) Provisional IRA.
ΚΠ
1975 Times 23 May 14/1 In describing the culprits the spokesman could say that it was PIRA.., blaming the deed on the Provisionals.
1987 T. Paulin Hillsborough Script 44 Old Mollynocks and Pisspot'll be delighted to see you chaps back in the ring with Pira.
1998 T. Clancy Rainbow Six vii. 142 What if terrorists—usually they thought of the Irish PIRA or INLA—attacked one of the Royal residences.
P–K n. (also PK) Medicine Prausnitz–Küstner (test).
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > healing > diagnosis or prognosis > tests > [adjective] > specific tests
drug testing1841
Head1893
Widal1896
tuberculin-tested1898
Schick1916
Kahn1922
T.T.1927
P–K1938
Papanicolaou1947
drugs testing1965
lymphocytotoxicity1965
patch-tested1990
1938 G. C. Andrews Dis. Skin (ed. 2) ii. 43 The P.–K. test is not positive by any means in all instances of allergy, nor for all allergens.
1963 Times 23 Apr. 15/4 Forty years later modern science has still been unable to find other methods to characterize allergic antibodies. Medical students the world over learn about the Prausnitz–Küstner, or as it is usually abbreviated the PK reaction.
1983 Allergy 38 171/2 The P–K test results.
PK n. psychokinesis; (also) psychokinetic (see also quot. 1943).
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > the paranormal > [noun] > psychokinesis
mind over matter1808
telekinesis1890
psychokinesis1914
PK1943
1943 L. E. Rhine & J. B. Rhine in Jrnl. Parapsychol. 7 20 This is the first of a long series of research reports describing experiments on what is called the ‘psychokinetic’ or ‘PK’ effect. The PK effect is colloquially called ‘mind over matter’, and means the direct influencing of a physical system by the action of a subject's effort, without any known intermediate energy or instrumentation.
1973 Times 4 Dec. 17/7 There is nothing new in PK (psychokinesis) and telepathy.
1990 L. Picknett Encycl. Paranormal 207/1 Although PK has been widely reported down the centuries from many cultures, its inherent improbability and its violation of such physical laws as we think we understand has led to its general rejection by science.
PKI n. [ < Indonesian PKI, initialism < Partai Komunis Indonesia] Indonesian Communist Party.
ΚΠ
1939 J. S. Furnivall Netherlands India viii. 250 Semaoen, the leader of the revolutionary section, formed a Communist party (P.K.I.).
1973 J. M. van der Kroef in R. F. Staar Yearbk. Internat. Communist Affairs 469 The oldest such party in Asia, the Communist Party of Indonesia (Partai Komunis Indonesia; PKI) formally came into existence on 23 May 1920 as an outgrowth of the ‘Indies Social Democratic Association’ founded six years previously by Dutch Marxists.
1997 Compar. Stud. Society & Hist. 39 604 Within weeks, hundreds of thousands of Javanese, Balinese, North Sumatrans, and ethnic Chinese with real or suspected ties to the PKI met their death at the hands of vigilantes and army units.
PKU n. Pathology phenylketonuria.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > disorders of internal organs > metabolic disorders > [noun] > other metabolic disorders
xanthomatosis1900
Tay-Sachs1907
ketosis1917
protein shock1917
hyperinsulinism1924
Niemann–Pick1928
tyrosinosis1932
von Gierke's disease1933
phenylketonuria1935
cystic fibrosis1938
mucoviscidosis1945
cystinosis1949
oxalosis1952
McArdle1957
orotic aciduria1959
PKU1961
sphingolipidosis1962
Reye's syndrome1965
Menkes1969
1961 Exceptional Children 27 260 2721 cases of mental retardates from private and public schools were tested. 5 cases of PKU were discovered.
1993 Weekend Austral. 17 July 56/1 In particular, the therapy [sc. gene therapy] might help babies with problems caused by inherited metabolic disorders such as phenylketonuria, or PKU, which occurs in about one in 16,000 births in the United States.
PLA n. People's Liberation Army.
ΚΠ
1950 Far Eastern Surv. 19 113/1 Kao Kang:..commander and political commissar, Northeast Military Headquarters, People's Liberation Army (PLA).
1962 E. Snow Other Side of River (1963) xxxix. 290 Chinese don't use the old word ping, or ‘soldier’, any more; the P.L.A. has only chan-shih, or ‘fighters’.
1990 Airforces Monthly Nov. 11/1 A combination of conscripts and volunteers, the PLA did not show to advantage in the war against Iran.
PLA n. Port of London Authority.
ΚΠ
1925 P.L.A. Monthly Nov. 16/1 The warehouses of the P.L.A. become the Mecca of the woolbuyers of the world.
1936 Discovery Aug. 232/1 As for using it [sc. the Thames] for transport, that is left to P.L.A. tugs, brick-barges, and an occasional pleasure steamer.
1997 World Archeol. 29 133 Riparian ownership and associated responsibilities are split between boroughs, counties, the Crown Estates, the Port of London Authority (PLA), the Environment Agency and others.
PLC n. Computing and Manufacturing Technology = programmable logic controller n. at programmable adj. and n. Compounds.
ΚΠ
1974 Control & Instrumentation Mar. 28 (title) PLC principle allows for a change in the control system.
2004 M. Amin in R. Zimmerman & T. Horan Digital Infrastructures viii. 122 PLCs have been used extensively in manufacturing and process industries for many years.
plc n. (also PLC) public limited company.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > business affairs > a business or company > [noun] > with limited liability
société anonyme1835
limited company1856
limited1858
plc1973
1973 Daily Tel. 20 Dec. 15 Although the proposed new form of incorporation for small companies is temporarily shelved, a new designation for listed companies is introduced. Out goes ‘Ltd’ and in comes ‘PLC’ or ‘Public Limited Company’.
1980 Daily Mail 8 Oct. 26/3 Following the implementation of..the 1980 Companies Act..we will be faced with names which resemble the lyrics of a Goodies song: ICI plc; RHM plc; [etc.].
1993 Daily Tel. 23 Feb. 20/3 He added that Mr Blackburn's appointment would not change the society's attitude to being transformed into a plc.
PLM n. [ < French PLM, initialism < Paris–Lyon–Méditerranée, the name of a railway company (created in the 1850s)] Paris–Lyons–Mediterranean (Railway).
ΚΠ
1898 W. J. Locke Idols xvi. 230 The great P.L.M. train carried Hugh swiftly northwards.
1919 R. Fry Let. 6 Oct. (1972) II. 458 The P.L.M. is really worse than the S.E.R... It's almost impossible to travel by it.
1996 H. W. Paul Sci., Vine, & Wine in Mod. France i. 37 His research was supported by the Compagnie des chemins de fer de Paris (PLM), one of the big profit makers in transporting products for the viticultural industry.
PLO n. Palestine Liberation Organization (see Palestine n. 3).
ΚΠ
1965 Times 23 Mar. 9/2 Ahmad Shukairy, leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization (P.L.O.) has extended his search for help to China.
1976 Time 27 Dec. 14/1 Although badly battered from its losing role in the Lebanese civil war, the P.L.O. remains an important force.
2001 Harper's Mag. Jan. 15/2 The Intifada was a spontaneous, remarkably disciplined, and courageous popular uprising that was neither initiated nor controlled by the PLO leadership in exile.
PL/I n. (also pl/I, PL/1) Computing Programming Language One, a high-level language designed to replace both Fortran and Cobol in their respective fields.
ΘΚΠ
society > computing and information technology > programming language > [noun] > high-level language > language
Fortran1956
Algol1959
Lisp1959
Cobol1960
BASIC1964
SNOBOL1964
PL/I1965
APL1966
Pascal1971
C1973
LOGO1976
Prolog1977
Ada1979
C++1984
Perl1987
Java1995
JavaScript1995
1965 PL/I: Lang. Specif. (IBM Form C28-6571-0) (title page) This manual is a description of the full facilities of PL/I to be implemented under Operating System/360.
1970 A. Cameron et al. Computers & Old Eng. Concordances 27 I myself will be very surprised if the next generation of machines will not accept Fortran programming and probably Cobol, Algol, and pl I programming.
1991 Computing 10 Jan. 48/2 (advt.) They are currently looking to recruit an A/P with a minimum of 18 months PL/1 experience.
PLP n. Parliamentary Labour Party.
ΚΠ
1950 Amer. Polit. Sci. Jrnl. 44 856 The fact that the membership, and especially the leadership, of the P.L.P. is almost always well represented on the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party helps cement the ties between them.
1976 H. Wilson Governance of Brit. viii. 160 A Labour prime minister has to operate in a number of intersecting party political circles. The first is PLP meetings.
2003 Times (Nexis) 28 Apr. 2 If they agree, a final decision will be made by the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP).
PLR n. Public Lending Right (see Public Lending Right n. at public adj. and n. Compounds 1b).
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > book > library or collection of books > library, place, or institution > [noun] > author's right to fee for public lending
PLR1969
1969 Times 14 Mar. 11/4 The Government has accepted the underlying similarity between PLR and public performing right in that both exemplify the principle of payment for use.
1990 Weekend Austral. 27 Jan. (Weekend Suppl.) 5/1 All authors know what PLR stands for—money. Set up in 1974, Public Lending Right was designed to replace the problem authors and publishers faced when their books were widely read but not bought—that is, borrowed from libraries.
PLSS n. personal life support system.
ΚΠ
1966 Preprints 37th Ann. Sci. Meeting Aerospace Med. Assoc. 58/1 The control operation of a portable life support system (PLSS) worn by an active astonaut..is ideally a close match between the dynamic responses of the PLSS and the metabolic behavior of the man.
1990 Aviation Week & Space Technol. (Nexis) 23 July 25 The primary oxygen system/carbon dioxide removal capability of the Soviet space suit's portable life support system (PLSS) is 5-6 hr.
P.M. n. particular (also: peculiar, proper) metre.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > poetry > versification > metre > [noun] > variety of > metre used only for particular hymn
peculiar (also proper) metreOE
P.M.1764
1764 A. Williams Universal Psalmodist (ed. 2) 87 Hallifax. Hymn 50tḥ..P.M.
a1912 W. T. Rogers Dict. Abbrev. (1913) 152/2 P.M. (mus.), peculiar metre (of hymns).
PM adj. and n. (also pm) post-mortem, that takes place after death; (also) an autopsy.
ΚΠ
1834 in D. E. Manuel Walking Paris Hospitals (2004) 88 Went to Andral's wards at La Pitié this morning—capital P.M. Examination.
1907 Proc. Royal Soc. B. 79 124 No P.M. exam. = A post-mortem examination was not made.
1928 D. L. Sayers Unpleasantness at Bellona Club xvi. 187 The advisability of a P.M. in all cases of sudden death.
2003 Toronto Star (Nexis) 12 Jan. f7 In our family, the best part of any holiday, event or party is the post mortem, known fondly as the P.M. It's considered fair play to indulge in constructive criticism and comment without personalizing.
PM n. Prime Minister.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > rule or government > ruler or governor > a or the government > head of government > [noun] > first minister of a ruler or state > British prime minister
prime minister of state1640
prime minister1655
grand pensionary1771
PM1907
prime1916
1907 W. S. Churchill Let. 27 Mar. in R. S. Churchill Winston Churchill (1969) II. Compan. I. 653 Could not you or the PM send him a ‘private & personal’ urging him not to fail us.
1915 D. Lloyd George Family Lett. (1973) 178 It was found impossible..for the P.M. to hold Exchequer during the time I am occupied in organising Munitions.
1998 Daily Mirror 1 Apr. 6/2 What hurts the PM's official spokesman most is lack of control over his own fate.
PMA n. Dentistry papillary, marginal, and attached (gingivitis); attributive designating an index that measures the extent of gingival inflammation.
ΚΠ
1948 I. Schour & M. Massler in Jrnl. Dental Res. 27 733 A quantitative method of assessing the prevalence of gingivitis in large groups of persons is proposed. Each gingival unit consisting of a papillary portion (P), a marginal portion (M), and an attached portion (A) is examined and counted separately. This method is tentatively termed the P-M-A-Index (P-papillary gingivitis; M-marginal gingivitis; A-attached gingivitis).
1997 Jrnl. Periodontol. 68 626 Sera were obtained from 75..subjects (aged 2 to 18 years) and their gingival health assessed using a modified PMA Index.
PMBX n. Telephony private manual branch exchange.
ΚΠ
1932 T. E. Herbert & W. S. Procter Telephony (ed. 2) I. xiv. 614 Lines terminating on a P.M.B.X. are connected to consecutive jacks.
1975 Post Office Electr. Engineers' Jrnl. 68 61/2 The PMBX No. 4 was originally designed to meet the requirements of single-position installations of up to 160 extensions.
1986 G. Langley Telecommunications Primer (ed. 2) xvi. 44 Boards like this were called PMBXs, Private Manual Branch Exchanges.
PMG n. Postmaster General.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > correspondence > postal services > [noun] > official of the post > postmaster general
postmaster general1626
postmaster1849
PMG1851
1851 O. Turner Hist. Pioneer Settlement of Phelps & Gorham's Purchase 556 It was provided in the contract that the P.M.G. would appoint deputy post masters, in any locations the contractor should designate, which were seven miles distant from each other.
1927 Times 22 Feb. 10/4 Remembering to have read of a franking machine called a postage meter being recently issued to the public, I wrote to the P.M.G.
a1974 R. Crossman Diaries (1976) II. 71 When Ted Short replaced Tony Benn as P.M.G. the Post Office was delighted.
2003 Courier Mail (Brisbane) (Nexis) 1 Feb. 16 At the time of buying the island, Mr Mason was working for the Postmaster General (PMG).
PMS n. pregnant mare's (or mare) serum.
ΚΠ
1938 Proc. Royal Soc. 1937–8 B. 124 505 A total dose of 2·5 mg. of the pregnant mare serum extract used (PMS 2) produced ovaries weighing 29 mg.
1957 Times 2 Dec. (Agric. Suppl.) p. vi/2 In experiments with Romney Marsh, Cheviot and Southdown sheep, P.M.S. injections have increased the number of lambs born of each ewe mated.
1996 Science 30 Aug. 1219/3 Administration of pregnant mare serum (PMS) gonadotropin induced an increase in uterine weight.
PMS n. Medicine = premenstrual syndrome n. at premenstrual adj. Compounds.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > disorders of internal organs > reproductive organ disorders > [noun] > of female > menstrual disorders
amenorrhoea1772
menorrhagia1779
dysmenorrhœa1801
menostation1822
menostasis1839
menorrhoea1848
oligomenorrhoea1865
dysmenorrhagia1885
polymenorrhoea1928
premenstrual tension1928
premenstrual syndrome1944
PMT1978
1976 Lancet 25 Sept. 654/1 Serum-prolactin was measured by radioimmunoassay during the menstrual cycle in 28 women who had the premenstrual syndrome (P.M.S.).
1990 Pract. Health Spring 37/2 Women may be affected by their menstrual cycle, headaches often being part of PMS and menopausal symptoms.
2001 New Scientist 27 Jan. 21/1 The dried extract of the fruit of the chaste tree (Vitex agnus castus) greatly reduces PMS symptoms such as depression, mood swings, headaches and sore breasts.
PMT n. Medicine (chiefly British) = premenstrual tension n. at premenstrual adj. Compounds.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > disorders of internal organs > reproductive organ disorders > [noun] > of female > menstrual disorders
amenorrhoea1772
menorrhagia1779
dysmenorrhœa1801
menostation1822
menostasis1839
menorrhoea1848
oligomenorrhoea1865
dysmenorrhagia1885
polymenorrhoea1928
premenstrual tension1928
premenstrual syndrome1944
PMT1978
1978 A. Phillips & J. Rakusen Our Bodies Ourselves (ed. 2) vii. 173 For period pains uncomplicated by PMT, combined contraceptive pills can be an answer because they can suppress ovulation.
1980 Obstetr. & Gynecol. 56 723/1 Previous studies suggest an association between prolactin and the premenstrual tension syndrome (PMT).
1999 P. Agbabi in S.-J. Lovett Oral 2 But I only see red Coz I'm feeling rather freaky When it comes to having PMT No woman can beat me I'm speedy I'm angry I'm horny I'm stoned I want to be touched And I wanna be left alone.
PND n. = postnatal depression n. at postnatal adj. Compounds.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > mental health > mental illness > degree or type of mental illness > [noun] > depression
anxiety1661
vapours1662
vapour-fit1707
depression1905
postpartum depression1929
baby blues1940
sterks1941
postnatal depression1946
PPD1975
PND1978
SAD1983
seasonal affective disorder1983
1978 J. Browne et al. Changes, Chances, Choices ii. 26 For the eighty per cent of all mothers who suffer post-natal depression (PND).., the months after a baby's birth can be a bewildering, unhappy time.
1992 Advertiser (Adelaide) (Nexis) 23 Apr. The birth of her first child..was followed by PND which left her vague, lethargic and depressed.
2011 C. Spahr Right Time Baby x. 271 The older mothers who did suffer from PND were more than twice as likely to seek help than the younger ones.
PNdB n. (also PNDB, PNdb) perceived noise decibel(s).
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the world > matter > physics > science of sound > [noun] > unit of sound
decibel1928
phon1932
phonon1932
PNdB1959
db.1975
1959 K. D. Kryter in Jrnl. Acoustical Soc. Amer. 31 1425/1 The translation from perceived noisiness in noys to perceived noise level in PNdb is expressed by the equation PNdb = (1.2 t log10N)/0.03, where N is the number of noys. By definition, the perceived noise level of sound ‘X’ (in PNdb) is the sound pressure level in db re 0·0002 μbar of the 910–1090 cps band of random noise that is judged by an average listener to be acceptable (or, inversely, as unacceptable) as sound ‘X’, under specified conditions of listening and testing.
1998 Newsday (Nexis) 22 Jan. a37 A decibel reading of 112 PNDB (perceived noise decibels) triggers an aircraft violation.
PNEU n. Parents' National Educational Union.
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a1912 W. T. Rogers Dict. Abbrev. (1913) 153/1 P.N.E.U, Parents' National Educational Union.
1972 R. Asher Talking Sense viii. 103 I was looking at the material my daughter of thirteen is studying at the P.N.E.U. school she attends.
2002 Times Educ. Suppl. (Nexis) 5 Apr. 36 There was a formal list of things we were to be taught based on PNEU (Parents National Educational Union), but as far as I remember, most of the time we played cards.
PNP n. (also pnp, PnP, pNp) U.S. slang (originally and chiefly in gay usage) = party and play n. at party n. 13h.Recorded earliest in attributive use.
ΚΠ
2001 Bay Area Reporter 19 July (Personal advts. section) 39/2 Expert cocksucker for 3-way 2 oversex party n play sexpigs, looking for 3rd for weekend pnp sessions.
2014 @JonnyBoi1994 26 Mar. in twitter.com (O.E.D. Archive) Guys on #Grindr be like: PNP? I'm like no way. I don't party and Play.
P.O.A. n. Probation of Offenders Act.
ΚΠ
1944 J. H. Bagot Punitive Detention i. 13 In the years 1936 to 1939 a marked tendency is disclosed for the proportions discharged P.O.A. and fined to decrease and for the proportion placed on probation to increase.
1945 Notes & Queries 10 Mar. 106/1 ‘Dismissed P.O.A.’ simply means that a case is dismissed under the Probation of Offenders Act, 1907... Such dismissals are of such daily occurrence in the courts that P.O.A. are initials as commonly understood as are R.A.F. or Y.M.C.A. in their respective spheres.
POC n. chiefly North American people (or person) of colour.Originally used with reference to black people, but now more often used to refer to non-white people in general.
ΘΚΠ
the world > people > ethnicities > division of mankind by physical characteristics > non-white person > [noun]
person of colour1786
buck1800
coloured1832
Indiano1836
nigger1843
skepsel1844
native1846
non-white1864
fuzzy1890
fuzzy-wuzzy1892
monk1903
non-European1906
golliwog1916
wog1921
non-European1925
gook1935
boong1941
jungle bunny1966
Indio1969
1978 S.W. Louisiana Rec. XVII. p. xiii Abbreviations... p.o.c., people of color.
2014 L. Erickson-Schroth Trans Bodies, Trans Selves ii. 26 I'm not white; I also often don't feel comfortable claiming the label POC (person of color) because I move through the world with a lot of white privilege.
2022 @missfairygm 15 Mar. in twitter.com (accessed 18 Mar. 2022) POC are not a monolith... We have incredibly different experiences growing up!
† P.O.D. n. Obsolete pay on delivery.
ΚΠ
1859 N.-Y. Times 22 Jan. 3/6 (advt.) The principle on which we do our business is P.O.D. and C.O.D. Which literally means pay on delivery and collect on delivery.
1890 Webster's Internat. Dict. Eng. Lang. P.O.D.,..pay on delivery.
† P.O.D. n. U.S. Obsolete Post Office Department.
ΚΠ
1890 Webster's Internat. Dict. Eng. Lang. P.O.D., Post-Office Department.
POD n. Publishing print on demand.
ΚΠ
1987 Toronto Star 23 Aug. f4/2 Jim Storm, president of International Datacasting, hopes soon to see the same technology used in Print-On-Demand (POD) locations across the country.
2001 Sci. Fiction Chron. June 13/1 Douglas Clegg has joined POD publisher Stealth Press as director of on-line marketing.
P. of W. n. now historical Prince of Wales.
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1870 A. J. Munby Diary 13 July in D. Hudson Munby (1972) 288 Today the Thames Embankment was opened, not by the Queen, but by the P. of W. and his sister Louise.
1974 Listener 3 Jan. 17/2 Lord Berners..invited a smart lady to luncheon to meet ‘the P of W’. She arrived agog, expecting to meet the Prince of Wales and found it was the Provost of Worcester.
2000 Esquire (Nexis) 1 Mar. 162 Esquire referenced Edward VIII so often that the editors at times apologized for relying so heavily on the man they came to abbreviate as, when he was Prince of Wales, ‘the P of W’.
P.O.L. n. (also p.o.l) petrol, oil, and lubricants.
ΚΠ
1944 Times 7 June 6/1 The operational planning for invasion had to be interpreted at an early stage in terms of P.O.L. requirements.
1977 R.A.F. News 22 June 11/3 Training is centred on the ground attack role, with simulated attack profiles (SAPs) being flown against..POL objectives (Petrol, Oil, Lubricants).
2002 Business Line (Nexis) 30 Dec. A safety reserve of oil and p.o.l. products seems a critical need for a modern economy, like India, dependent on imports from abroad.
P.O.O. n. Post Office Order.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > money > medium of exchange or currency > paper money > promissory notes or bills of exchange > [noun] > postal order
post bill1740
money order1802
post-office order1815
order1846
P.O.O.1856
PO1861
postal note1862
postal order1864
mandat1896
M.O.1909
postal draft1929
1856 J. A. Symonds Let. 28 June (1967) I. 75 Thank Papa very much for the P.[ost] O[ffice] O.[rder] which I got cashed without difficulty.
1886 W. S. Churchill Let. 13 July in R. S. Churchill Winston Churchill (1967) I. Compan. I. iv. 123 I received the P.O.O. which you sent me and am very thankful for it.
1966 J. W. Gurnett & C. H. J. Kyte Cassell's Dict. Abbrev. 169/2 P.O.O., Post Office Order.
POP n. (also PoP) Telecommunications and Computing point of presence.
ΚΠ
1983 Data Communications (Nexis) Mar. 58 A POP could be a building, a floor of a building, or an unmanned facility.
1996 Pulse 20 Apr. 60/1 Is there a POP in your local phone area?
POP n. Post Office Preferred.
ΚΠ
1968 Which? 11 Jan. 2/2 The Post Office have told us that they are introducing a new system of envelope sizing, called Post Office Preferred (POP). Packets which are not the size the Post Office prefers will not qualify for the cheapest postal rates.
2002 Belfast Tel. (Nexis) 30 Dec. Anything that is not POP size (Post Office Preferred) causes problems and has to be sorted by hand.
P.O.P. n. printing-out paper.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > writing > writing materials > material to write on > paper > [noun] > other types of paper
writing paper1610
gilt paper1645
chancery-double1712
stamp paper1765
satin paper1776
cardstock1840
tablet paper1876
quadrille1884
P.O.P.1895
copy-paper1902
Silurian1942
sticky note1978
1895 W. K. Burton Man. Photogr. viii. 126 Paper for the [gelatino-chloride] process..is sold under various names... Examples are ‘Solio-artistotype’, ‘Artisto-platino’ and ‘P.O.P.’
1925 P. R. Salmon All about Photogr. xx. 94 There is practically no difference between the cost of a finished print on P.O.P. and one on self-toning paper.
1989 Chicago Tribune (Nexis) 4 Aug. 62 The Chicago Albumen Works printing-out paper is self-masking and available in the traditional P.O.P. single grade, weight and glossy surface.
POP n. Pharmacology progesterone-only pill, progestogen-only pill.
ΚΠ
1980 J. Guillebaud Pill viii. 162 Because the word ‘mini-pill’ causes so much confusion , I shall just label them progestogen-only pills or POPs for short.
1998 Idaho Falls Post Reg. (Nexis) 2 Apr. c6 This POP has been around for some time, but it is rarely used in the United States, whereas 10 to 15 percent of women in Great Britain and Sweden are on the POP.
POPOP n. [ < the initial letters of phenyl n. and oxazole n. (the molecule consisting of five such rings joined in this order)] Biochemistry 1,4-bis(5-phenyloxazol-2-yl)benzene, a substance used in solution as a scintillator.
ΚΠ
1955 Science 9 Dec. 1139/3 A solution of 0·4-percent PPO and 0·01-percent 1,4-di(5-phenyl-2-oxazolyl)benzene (POPOP) has been used, which gives..a pulse height of 121 percent.
2000 Austral. Jrnl. Soil Res. (Nexis) 38 699 3-mL sample which was placed into a vial and mixed with 17 mL of scintillation fluid consisting of toluene, p-terphenyl, POPOP, and teric.
POS n. point of sale.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > trading place > place where retail transactions made > [noun]
retailour1445
outlet1803
waygate1833
point of sale1844
selling-point1953
POS1969
1969 Payment Syst. Newslett. Dec. 5/2 The system..does not start with the point-of-sale terminal and construct the rest of the system around POS transactions.
1993 Star-Ledger (Newark, New Jersey) 21 Nov. iii. 6/6 Chemical Bank expects to see 600,000 POS transactions this year.
POTS n. (also Pots) chiefly U.S. Plain Old Telephone Service (or System), a telephone service regarded as unsophisticated; (now, Computing) the analogue telephone network, as opposed to digital communications technologies.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > telecommunication > telegraphy or telephony > telephony > [noun] > types of
telephonography1889
wireless telephony1899
radio-telephony1906
touch-tone1962
mobile telephony1965
POTS1970
1970 in Federal Suppl. (U.S.) (1983) 556 891/1 If Bell had been serving all markets well (from the POTS [Plain Old Telephone service] customers to those with complex data transmission needs), the aspiring competitors might never have filed applications.
1984 J. M. Rosenberg Dict. Computers, Data Processing & Telecommunications 42/1 Basic service, at one time this phrase meant plain old telephone service (P.O.T.S.).
1995 N. Negroponte Being Digital (1996) ii. 26 The telephone companies claimed that POTS was not enough and that unless they were allowed to become broader information providers, they could not justify the enormous cost of a new infrastructure.
POUM n. [ < Spanish POUM, initialism < Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista] Workers' Party of Marxist Unity.
ΚΠ
1936 D. Gascoyne Jrnl. 13 Oct. (1980) 36 They are shortly going to Barcelona, armed with cameras and introductions from Fenner Brockway of the I.L.P., to work for the P.O.U.M., an apparently Trotskyite organization.
1992 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 30 Jan. 10/1 Certainly his life makes a dramatic story: particularly his service with POUM and the Republican forces in Spain.
POV n. (also P.O.V., pov, p.o.v.) chiefly Film point of view.
ΚΠ
1967 T. Southern Plums & Prunes in N. Southern & J. A. Friedman Now dig This (2001) 94 (stage direct.) Brad's eyes follow her as before; his POV, her handsome tushy as she goes up the stairs.
1980 B. Schulberg On Waterfront Screenplay 39 (stage direct.) There are stained glass windows, an altar, pews and the figures of saints, but all is utter simplicity; it has not lost its basement feeling, and the unadorned walls and low lighting may suggest the catacombs. The above is seen from the POV of Terry as he approaches.
2003 N.Y. Mag. 5 May 13/3 Johnson's opportunistic view of his Iraqi tour as a kitschfest is absolutely in keeping with his employer's POV and editorial philosophy.
POW n. Prince of Wales.
ΚΠ
1916 F. M. Ford Let. 23 Aug. (1965) 69 The P.O.W.—who was quite unrecognizable, was perfectly businesslike.
1996 Sydney Morning Herald 19 Oct. (Spectrum Suppl.) 6/1 I'm in operating theatre No 4 at the Prince of Wales (POW) Hospital in Randwick.
POW n. (also PoW) prisoner of war.ⓘ
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > warrior > defeated or conquered > [noun] > prisoner of war
prizec1330
prisonera1375
prison1438
prisoner of war1608
POW1903
1903 N.Y. Times 25 Jan. 27/6 The souvenirs marked ‘P.O.W.’—prisoner of war.
1918 Brit. Times 1 Feb. 1 The Central P.o.W. Committee has complained several times that men do not acknowledge their parcels regularly.
1941 War Illustr. 31 Jan. 101/1 P.O.W. camps in Germany and Poland are shown in this map.
1945 Coshocton (Ohio) Tribune 1 Sept. 8/4 (caption) This prisoner is the ‘honcho’, or group headman, in the POW stockade.
1994 Fortean Times June 24/2 After I got out of PoW camp there they bumped me up to first lieutenant.
2009 Canberra Times (Nexis) 8 Jan. a9 Its [sc. Guantanamo's] closure does not mean that the legal and practical obligations..with detaining POWs and other captured belligerents has magically evaporated.
P.P. n. (also p.p.) parish priest.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > church government > member of the clergy > priest > kinds of priest > [noun] > parish priest
parish priest1318
papas1591
parochian1621
curé1655
pope1662
paroecian1725
P.P.1819
parochial1853
parroco1866
rector1898
paroch1900
1819 Catholic Vindicator 20 Nov. 810/2 P.P. of Armagh.
1922 J. Joyce Ulysses ii. xii. [Cyclops] 304 The very rev. Timothy canon Gorman, P. P.
1991 ‘W. Trevor’ Reading Turgenev vii, in Two Lives (1992) 65 ‘Father Curtin. Whippersnapper with sideburns.’ ‘I remember the man well.’ ‘Changes were made when the p.p. got a whiff of it.’
P-P n. (also PP) Medicine pellagra-preventive or -preventing (formerly, a designation of the vitamin now called niacin).
ΚΠ
1925 J. Goldberger & W. F. Tanner in Public Health Rep. (U.S. Public Health Service) 40 77 It would seem as if the heretofore unrecognized pellagra-preventive factor, to which we shall hereafter refer as factor P-P, were capable of preventing the disease with little if any cooperation from the protein factor of the diet.
1942 F. Bicknell & F. Prescott Vitamins in Med. v. 259 Nicotinic acid was at first hailed as the PP or pellagra preventing factor, but it is now known that pellagra is a multiple deficiency disease and that lack of nicotinic acid is only one of the factors in its causation.
1967 H. A. Guthrie Introd. Nutrition xii. 240/2 Niacin, another water-soluble vitamin identified with the B complex, has been known as nicotinic acid and as the pellagra preventative (P–P) factor.
p.p. n. per procurationem, by proxy.
ΚΠ
1882 R. Bithell Counting-house Dict. 235 P.P. Endorsements, endorsements by procuration—that is, per-procuration... The following is the usual form of a per-pro endorsement. ‘Pay to the Order of Blanc & Co. Per Pro Shipley & Sons. Thos. Brown.’
1967 E. Lemarchand Death of Old Girl i. 12 All the other letters can wait... Sign the ones we've done p.p.
1999 Herald (Glasgow) (Nexis) 18 Nov. 20 Some of his [sc. J. K. Galbraith's] directives were signed p.p. by a young pen -pusher called Richard M Nixon.
pp n. (also PP) Music pianissimo, very softly.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > music > musical sound > volume > [noun] > soft tone
pp1724
piano1730
pianissimo1781
1724 Short Explic. Foreign Words Musick Bks. 53 The letter P is often used as an Abbreviation of the Word piano: and PP as an Abbreviation of the Words piu piano: and PPP as an Abbreviation of the Word pianissimo.
1966 Listener 2 June 815/2 Helga Pilarczyk..often ignored the composer's repeated demands for pp or sometimes ppp singing.
1993 H. Stevens Life & Music Béla Bartók (ed. 3) ii. 119 Bartók, ordinarily content with a dynamic compass ranging from pp to ff, here writes ppp and fff in an effort to expand the expressive range.
ppb n. (also P.P.B.) parts per billion.
ΚΠ
1929 Science 21 June 651/1 (table) Iodine in Plants..Feedstuffs..No. of Samples..P.P.B. iodine av.
1956 J. Cholak in P. L. Magill et al. Air Pollution Handbk. xi. 10 The normal fluoride content of the atmosphere is extremely low (2 to 8 ppb).
1990 C. Rose Dirty Man of Europe (BNC) 120 During 1976, when the weather was warm and dry, record-breaking ozone levels were detected, reaching over 200 ppb and exceeding 60 ppb on half the summer days.
PPD n. Medicine purified protein derivative (of tuberculin).
ΚΠ
1934 Amer. Rev. Tuberculosis 30 766 Under current arrangements the Committee endorses the use of a special designation, namely ‘Tuberculin, P.P.D. (Purified Protein Derivative)’, by these two manufacturing houses.
1963 E. M. Lincoln & E. M. Sewell Tuberculosis in Children iii. 41 The Heaf test requires a special apparatus that makes 6 skin punctures 1 mm deep through a layer of concentrated PPD containing 100,000 TU per ml.
1992 News Jrnl. (Wilmington, Delaware) 18 Aug. b2/6 When Inselman saw the swollen lymph nodes and a spot of pneumonia..on the..X-ray, she suspected TB and ordered a PPD (purified protein derivative) skin test.
PPD n. = postpartum depression n. at postpartum adv. and adj. Compounds.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > mental health > mental illness > degree or type of mental illness > [noun] > depression
anxiety1661
vapours1662
vapour-fit1707
depression1905
postpartum depression1929
baby blues1940
sterks1941
postnatal depression1946
PPD1975
PND1978
SAD1983
seasonal affective disorder1983
1975 I. Kurtz in J. Marzollo 9 Months, 1 Day, 1 Year 118 Postpartum depression follows hard on postpartum euphoria... In my case PPD lasted for three hours and forty-five minutes.
1992 M. Kelly & E. Parsons Mother's Almanac (rev. ed.) 32/1 If you have PPD.., you need help, especially if you are afraid you'll hurt yourself or the baby.
2008 R. Nydegger Understanding & treating Depression 82 There are a number of factors that will cause a mother to develop PPD, but women of all ages, all socioeconomic classes, and all races and ethnic backgrounds can be affected.
PPE n. Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (a course of study at Oxford University).
ΚΠ
1953 Oxf. Econ. Papers 5 120 I cannot help thinking that if P.P.E. had been born 20 years earlier (as it ought to have been), it would have been more historical and less philosophical than it is.
1972 Times Lit. Suppl. 3 Nov. 1310/2 Edward Heath and Harold Wilson read PPE.
2003 Times (Nexis) 8 May ii. 8 Balliol's reputation as the incubator of prominent future politicians contributes to its popularity in PPE, where five applicants are chasing each place.
PPE n. personal protective (or protection) equipment: clothing and equipment designed to provide the wearer or user protection against hazardous substances or environments, or to prevent transmission of infectious diseases (see personal protective equipment n.).
ΚΠ
1977 Austin (Minnesota) Daily Herald 17 May 13 a/1 PPE can be a lifesaver... The use of personal protective equipment could eliminate or significantly reduce the severity of about forty per cent of all farm work injuries.
1995 I. G. Wallace Developing Effective Safety Syst. (1996) vi. 62 Useful sources of advice on the correct type of PPE can be found in international and national standards and PPE suppliers may also be able to provide authoritative advice.
2020 Belfast Tel. Online (Nexis) 31 Mar. Healthcare staff are crying out for PPE, they're asking for scrubs, they're asking for aprons, they are asking for masks and that is the reality on the ground for healthcare workers.
PPI n. British = payment protection insurance n. at payment n.1 Compounds 2.
ΚΠ
1988 Guardian 5 Mar. 27/7 Despite some blandishments about serving the public good, it should also be remembered that PPI is a nice little earner for the credit providers.
2001 Independent (Nexis) 25 Aug. (Features section) 5 Home buyers already paying mortgages, not just those entering new..agreements, can take out PPI policies.
2009 K. Clarke & R. Parsons Sixty Minute Debt Buster ii. 25 Thousands of pounds are now being paid to people who have been missold PPI.
PPI n. (also p.p.i.) plan position indicator.
ΚΠ
1942 Instr. Bk. for Navy Models ASG, ASG-1, Aircraft Radar Equipm. (Philco Corp. for U.S. Navy Bureau of Ships) iii. 9/1 The target signal produces an intensity modulation of the PPI sweep trace.
1959 New Scientist 23 July 97/2 In the ppi system the position of the echoes with respect to the ship is built up in plan or map form on the face of a cathode ray tube.
2003 Afr. News (Nexis) 28 Apr. Because in Kenya rain is usually accompanied by thunderstorms and lightening and often results in flash flood..there is a need to acquire new technology such as Doppler Surveillance Weather Radars (DSWR). Kenya only has Plan Position Indicator (PPI), which, in any case, got spoilt 10 years ago.
ppi n. (also PPI) policy (sufficient) proof of interest (see also wager policy n. at wager n.2 Compounds 2).
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > financial dealings > insurance > [noun] > insurance policy > specific types of policy
fire policy1737
valued policy1737
life policy1751
wagering policy1766
wager policy1766
time policy1808
wager-insurance1824
voyage policy1848
ppi1895
floater1900
maintenance contract1915
death futures1993
1895 Law Times Rep. 72 861/1 All these ‘disbursements’ policies were p.p.i. or ‘honour’ policies—policies, that is to say, wherein it was stipulated that the policy should be deemed sufficient proof of interest.
1962 H. O. Beecheno Introd. Business Stud. xvi. 151 Those policies (PPI—policies proof of interest) will only give rise to a claim if it is shown that the person claiming was the one financially interested when the loss or damage occurred.
1994 Halsbury's Laws of Eng. xxv. 131 A policy containing a ppi clause is void even though the assured may in fact have had an insurable interest.
PPK n. [ < German PPK, initialism < Polizei Pistole Kriminal, police criminal pistol (although frequently wrongly expanded as Polizei Pistole Kurz)] a type of small pistol.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > military equipment > weapon > device for discharging missiles > firearm > small-arm > [noun] > pistol > types of
dag1587
key gun1607
pocket pistol1612
key pistol1663
holster-pistol1679
troop pistol1688
horse pistol1704
screw-barrel1744
saddle pistol1764
air pistol1780
Wogdon1786
belt pistol1833
dueller1835
Colt1838
tickler1844
Derringer1853
cocking pistol1858
belt size1866
bulldozer1880
saloon pistol1899
Luger1904
Police Positive1905
Steyr1920
Saturday-night pistol1929
muff pistol1938
PPK1946
Makarov1958
Saturday-night special1959
puffer1963
snub nose1979
snubby1981
1946 W. H. B. Smith Walther Pistols 26 The P.P.K. means Polizeipistole Kriminal, indicating that the arm is intended for detectives and other police not in uniform who need a smaller weapon which can be readily concealed about the person.
1973 J. M. White Garden Game 173 The Jensen..had been thoroughly searched, but the PPK had been clipped back under the dash.
1997 Neon Sept. 50/1 James Bond..was pressured into using a Walther PPK on the grounds that the Baretta was ‘a woman's gun’.
PPLO n. Medicine pleuropneumonia-like organism(s).
ΚΠ
1947 Proc. Soc. Exper. Biol. & Med. 64 165/2 The most reliable method for the identification of the P.P.LO. is the use of stained agar preparations.
1965 Listener 11 Mar. 372/1 Unlike viruses, PPLO can grow in the absence of living host cells.
1997 Physician & Sportsmed. (Nexis) Oct. 43 M pneumoniae (also called Eaton agent or pleuropneumonia-like organism [PPLO]) was one of the organisms originally found to cause atypical pneumonia.
ppm n. parts per million.
ΚΠ
1905 Bot. Gaz. 40 185 Culture 6, containing 30,000 p.p.m. manure in the Takoma soil, shows a discrepancy which was not found in Series I.
1964 Punch 25 Nov. 806/2 A peregrine found dead on Lundy Island contained 78 ppm of total chlorinated hydrocarbon in its liver.
1989 C. Caufield Multiple Exposures (1990) xix. 194 Igneous rocks have only about 0.03 parts per million (ppm) of uranium; granite has 4 ppm; bituminous shale has up to 80 ppm.
PPO n. originally and chiefly U.S. Preferred Provider Organization.
ΚΠ
1982 Inc. Aug. 108/3 A new entry among alternative health-care plans, preferred provider organizations (PPOs) exist in 12 major cities from Minneapolis to Los Angeles.
2002 Washington Post (Electronic ed.) 29 Oct. By contrast, a PPO would charge treatment co-pays of up to $30 and medication co-pays of no more than $40 per prescription.
PPP n. Personal Pension Plan, a private pension scheme available to employed or self-employed individuals who are not members of an occupational scheme.
ΚΠ
1982 Financial Times 23 Jan. 7/7 One particular feature under both Personal Pension Plans (PPP) for the self-employed and Executive Pension Plans (EPP) for directors and executives is that lump sum death benefits are paid free of Capital Transfer Tax.
2002 Which? Tax Saving Guide 55/3 If your employer doesn't run a scheme, or you're self-employed, you can choose to contribute to either a personal pension plan (PPP) or a stakeholder pension plan (SPP).
PPS n. Parliamentary Private Secretary.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > rule or government > ruler or governor > a or the government > government minister > [noun] > minister in British government > assistant to minister
permanent under-secretary1859
parliamentary private secretary1917
PPS1936
1936 H. Nicolson Let. 12 June (1966) 265 Then his P.P.S. took him by the arm and he left the House for ever.
1959 Times 23 Oct. 14/6 Mr. Barber had served as a whip before he became P.P.S. to the Prime Minister in February, 1958.
1999 London Student (Univ. London Union) 24 Feb. 2/5 A PPS to a Cabinet Minister is expected to vote with the Government.
ppt n. parts per thousand.
ΚΠ
1946 Biol. Bull. 90 247 The salinity of the water ranged from 27.31 p.p.t. soon after high water to 25.45 p.p.t. at low water.
1997 G. S. Helfman et al. Diversity of Fishes xvii. 313/1 Some desert pupfishes can tolerate salinities over 100 parts per thousand (ppt) and as high as 140 ppt, three to four times that of seawater.
ppt n. parts per trillion (1012).
ΚΠ
1964 Limnol. & Oceanogr. 9 310 Toxaphene ranged from 7 to 410 parts per trillion (ppt).
1993 Canad. Geographic July 14/1 Near a pulp mill at Crofton on Vancouver Island, dioxin levels in eggs from a heronry dropped from 209 ppt in 1987 to 19.4 ppt last year.
PPU n. Peace Pledge Union.
ΚΠ
1937 A. Huxley Let. 30 Mar. (1969) 416 I have talked to the secretary of the PPU and he agrees that it will be best to go ahead with the 6d. edition in paper.
1973 Freedom 1 Sept. 4/1 Convinced pacifists of the PPU type.
1992 Jrnl. Contemp. Hist. 27 494 The PPU's initial popularity lay in its insistence upon a Christian response to the challenges posed by the fascist powers.
PPV n. Broadcasting (originally U.S.) = pay-per-view n. and adj. at pay v.1 Compounds 2.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > broadcasting > television > [adjective] > types of system
pay-as-you-see1950
pay-as-you-look1953
pay-as-you-view1953
public access1970
pay-per-view1978
PPV1982
1982 Variety 24 Mar. 273/4 (heading) Oak Media-backed PPV Company plans to offer satellite concerts to colleges; hardware is free.
2000 Independent (Electronic ed.) 19 Oct. The restrictions imposed by the Premier League would have prevented ntl from using PPV as a free incentive to induce subscribers to sign up to cable packages.
PQ n. parliamentary question.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > rule or government > ruler or governor > deliberative, legislative, or administrative assembly > governing or legislative body of a nation or community > procedure of parliament or national assembly > [noun] > question put to minister
question1549
PQ1948
1948 R.A.F. Rev. Feb. 3 (heading) The path of the ‘P.Q.’.
1976 H. Wilson Governance of Brit. vii. 132 No prime minister looks forward to ‘PQs’ with anything but apprehension; every prime minister works long into the night on his answers.
1986 R. Sproat Stunning the Punters 186 I faithfully checked and double-checked the facts and arguments in answers to PQs.
P.R. n. photographic reconnaissance.
ΚΠ
1943 Aeroplane Spotter 3 Dec. 278 (caption) The De Havilland P.R. Mosquito.
1946 R.A.F. Jrnl. May 153 We are indebted for the photographs and specialized articles with which the P.R. people supplied us.
1958 Times Lit. Suppl. 24 Jan. 48/5 Another part of the secret was to have P.R. grouped together.
P.R. n. (also P.-R.) Pre-Raphaelite.
ΚΠ
1851 Art Jrnl. July 186/2 A school..that..will continue to exist unless Mr. Ruskin and his friends the P.-R.s upset it.
1874 L. Troubridge Life amongst Troubridges (1966) ix. 75 Amy's present rage..is to make her room pre-Raphaelite, with a border of P.R. bulrushes all round it.
P.R. n. Boxing prize ring.
ΚΠ
1829 P. Egan Boxiana New Ser. II. 8 A boxer of considerable notoriety in the London P.R.
1889 E. B. Michell Boxing in W. H. Pollock et al. Fencing (Badminton Libr. of Sports & Pastimes) i. 125 The belt—the emblem of modern championship in the P.R.
1966 J. W. Gurnett & C. H. J. Kyte Cassell's Dict. Abbrev. 170/2 P.R., Prize Ring.
PR n. (also P.R.) proportional representation.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > office > appointment to office > choosing or fact of being chosen for office > election of representative body by vote > right to vote at elections > [noun] > system of representation
proportional representation1870
PR1885
proportionalism1885
1885 H. Sidgwick in A. Sidgwick & E. M. Sidgwick Henry Sidgwick (1906) 400 The application of the principle of P.R. to University Constituencies.
1924 Manch. Guardian 2 May 9/1 The Labour party and Labour leaders have always been divided upon the subject of P.R.
1974 Times 2 Mar. 14/4 If PR is to come in Britain the crucial issue is whether it is to be the single-member or multi~member kind.
2003 Mirror (Nexis) 12 May 2 The party want to see proportional representation, PR, replace the traditional first-past-the-post system—a move opposed by many Labour backbenchers.
PR n. (also p.r.) public relations.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > information > publishing or spreading abroad > advertising > business of advertising > [noun] > public relations
public relations1898
PR1942
1942 E. Partridge Dict. Abbrev. 77/1 P.R., Public Relations. (The publicity department of certain Services and Ministries.)
1977 Time 31 Jan. 48/3 The p.r. man behind this is the star.
1992 Watertown (N.Y.) Daily Times 26 Jan. 6/3 Even if some of Kessler's actions are nothing more than brilliant P.R. stunts, he's bringing attention to consumer and health issues and making the food and drug industries nervous.
PR n. Puerto Rico; Puerto Rican.
ΚΠ
1909 Cent. Dict. Suppl. P.R., an abbreviation..(b) of Porto Rico.
1972 D. E. Westlake Cops & Robbers (1973) 9 There were no customers in there; just the Puerto Rican clerk... The PR was neutral as gray paint.
1990 T. Robbins Skinny Legs & All 125 A P.R. girl would go to church, even, in shoes like hers, but not a blanquita.
PRA n. President of the Royal Academy (of Art).
ΚΠ
1803 P. Canvas (title) A rap for the P.R.A., or three words to Mr. West on his late attempt to pass off an old lady of 76 for a beauty of eighteen hundred and three.
1895 G. B. Shaw in Sat. Rev. 9 Feb. 182/2 If the friend of Sir Joshua Reynolds had been Sir David Garrick, and if every successive P.R.A. had had for his officially recognized peer the leading actor of his day.
2002 Independent on Sunday (Nexis) 16 June 10 A floor sculpture of unimaginable gaucheness, called And did those hills..?, by Phillip King CBE PRA.
PRB n. Pre-Raphaelite Brother; Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
ΚΠ
1849 D. G. Rossetti Let. 1 Oct. (1965) I. 73 Love to our family, the P.R.B., and all.
1852 J. Brown Let. (1912) 128 The other morning I saw a scene which, were I a P.R.B. and a genius, I would make immortal.
2002 Press (Christchurch, N.Z.) (Nexis) 4 Dec. c4 These young artists were impatient with their elders and ambitious for themselves. The PRB was their campaign to reshape and improve British art.
PRC n. the People's Republic of China.
ΚΠ
1956 Jrnl. Politics 18 520 The Constitution of the People's Republic of China was adopted on September 20, 1954, by the first National People's Congress (NPC) of the People's Republic of China (PRC) at its first session.
2000 T. Clancy Bear & Dragon xx. 293 He handed her a Bible printed in the Gouyu, the national language of the PRC (also called Mandarin), and helped her find appropriate passages.
PRO n. Public Record Office.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > record > written record > arrangement and storage of written records > [noun] > place where official records are kept
registery1483
chancery1523
registry1531
cartuary1539
Register House1540
cartulary?1541
arches1626
register office1641
archive1645
record office1647
tabulary1656
registry office1720
registrature1762
dufter1791
records department1825
PRO1892
morgue1914
1892 F. W. Maitland Let. 6 Sept. (1965) 105 I ought to be at P.R.O. next week.
1931 Notes & Queries 5 Dec. 408/2 I cannot find the Returns of officers' services for these regiments at the P.R.O.
1991 Hist. & Computing 3 28/2 Data for the maps and indexes were transcribed in the PRO onto prepared coding forms.
PRO n. public relations officer.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > information > publishing or spreading abroad > advertising > business of advertising > [noun] > public relations > public relations officer
PRO1941
minder1982
1941 H. Nicolson Diary 8 July (1967) 177 I drive down to White's Club with Duff [Cooper] and beg him to treat the P.R.O.s this afternoon with all gentleness. They are a touchy lot.
1966 ‘H. MacDiarmid’ Company I've Kept i. 22 Philip Jordan, Attlee's P.R.O., was with us.
2003 Pakistan Newswire (Nexis) 28 Apr. Former public relation officer of..Mohammad Shabih Siddiqui..has been appointed as PRO of provincial minister Imtiaz Ahmad Shiekh.
PROM n. (also prom) Computing programmable read-only memory (read-only memory to which data can be written, but only once); cf. ROM n.3
ΘΚΠ
society > computing and information technology > hardware > [noun] > primary storage or main memory > read-only
ROM1966
EAROM1970
PROM1973
EPROM1977
1973 Jrnl. Electrochem. Soc. 120 1001 (heading) Reliability of NiCr ‘fusible link’ used in PROM's.
2003 EDN (Nexis) 12 June 38 Applications that load configuration data from either an embedded processor or a co-resident PROM can optimize the configuration process to further reduce the load time.
PROP n. Preservation of the Rights of Prisoners.
ΚΠ
1972 Guardian 1 Sept. 1/6 Prisoners were..vowing to stay up [on the roof] until the Home Office recognised the prisoners' union, PROP.
2003 Hull Daily Mail (Nexis) 4 Feb. 18 They wanted to win official recognition from the Home Office of PROP as a national union for prisoners and ex-prisoners.
PrP n. Molecular Biology and Medicine prion protein; protease-resistant protein.
ΚΠ
1983 Cell 35 349 The extensively purified fractions derived using this protocol contained only one major protein, designated PrP, and rod-shaped particles.
1989 Brain 112 1117 It has been established that there are two isoforms of prion protein. PrPC is a component of normal cells while PrPSc is resistant to protein kinase K, presumptively because of posttranslational modification.
2002 Science 14 June 1993/1 The one consistent pathological feature of the prion diseases is the accumulation of amyloid material that is immunopositive for prion protein (PrP), which is encoded by a single gene on the short arm of chromosome 20.
PRP n. (a) profit-related pay; (b) performance-related pay.
ΚΠ
1987 Economist (Nexis) 31 Mar. 28 Workers will get relief on half of their profit-related pay (PRP) up to a limit of 20% of their income or £3,000, whichever is lower.
1990 Independent on Sunday (Nexis) 4 Feb. 32 PRP means performance-related pay, which means that you nail your financial fortunes to that of the company.
1991 Fiscal Stud. Aug. 67 The issue of PRP has provoked much academic debate. The claims made for the restorative powers of this brand of profit-sharing..were ambitious.
1998 Educ. Rev. 12 ii. 60/1 It is hoped that PRP will lure badly needed graduates into teaching with the promise of high pay if they excel in the classroom.
PRS n. Performing Rights Society.
ΚΠ
1927 Melody Maker Aug. 755/2 I am assuming..that the hall is not already licensed by the P.R.S.
1993 Computing 10 June 3/2 The meeting had been called to allow members to quiz PRS bosses about their cancellation of the Performing Right Online Membership Services project.
PRS n. President of the Royal Society.
ΚΠ
1682 N. Grew Anat. Plants (facing title page) Chr. Wren P.R.S.
1822 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 112 p. iv By Sir Humphry Davy. Bart., P.R.S.
2000 Financial Times (Nexis) 3 Mar. 6 The PRS, as he is known, is widely regarded as the leader of the scientific profession.
P.S. n. (also p.s.) prompt side; the side of a theatre stage on which the prompter sits.
ΚΠ
?a1780 Rake's Progress in T. Cibber Harlot's Progress (1977) 3 Enter P.S. Mother & Daughter, at sight of whom Rake stands aghast.
1838 R. B. Peake Quarter to Nine i, in B. Webster Acting National Drama II. 5 Apartment; Frolick's lodgings; closet door. Enter Mrs. Jervis, P.S.
1964 Shakespeare Q. 15 173 After the iniital section at II.ii is ‘P.S.’; after line 40, ‘O.P.’
P.S.A. n. British (now historical) Pleasant Sunday Afternoon.
ΚΠ
1888 Sheffield & Rotherham Independent 10 Dec. 2/5 The afternoon address consisted mainly of a further explanation of the P.S.A. movement.
1927 W. E. Collinson Contemp. Eng. 50 The P.S.A. (Pleasant Sunday Afternoon), with clasped hands as its symbol.
2003 Independent (Nexis) 25 Mar. Watkinson was able to explain the mysterious initials ‘PSA’ shown on a late-Victorian photograph of a well-groomed group on a boat at Hammersmith Pier as meaning ‘Pleasant Sunday Afternoons’.
PSA n. Medicine prostate-specific antigen.
ΚΠ
1982 Amer. Jrnl. Surg. Pathol. 6 553 The presence of PSA correlates with the Gleason grade.
1995 Hospital News Jan. 9/3 Men who want to..can pay for the controversial PSA testing for prostate cancer.
PSA n. public service announcement.
ΚΠ
1978 Washington Post 20 July d14/5 During two of the breaks in the movie there were nine consecutive messages—commercials, promos or public service announcements (PSAs)—in succession.
2001 Nature Conservancy May 7/1 Newman's involvement also will help increase the likelihood that the PSAs, which run at the discretion of local media outlets, will receive air play.
PSBR n. public sector borrowing requirement.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > financial dealings > borrowing money > [noun] > borrowing requirement
PSBR1975
1975 Times 17 Oct. 1/4 Mr. Healey recalled that in his April Budget he took steps ‘to reduce the public sector borrowing requirement (PSBR) below what it seemed likely to become both this year and next’.
2003 Yorks. Post (Nexis) 12 May Changes in the PSBR year-on-year simply represent the difference between state income and state expenditure without differentiating between capital and revenue expenditure.
psc n. (also PSC) passed staff college.
ΚΠ
1888 Army & Navy Gaz. 18 Feb. 129/2 Candidates..must also have passed the School of Auxiliary Artillery at Woolwich, and obtained the ‘p.s.’ certificate.]
1896 Oxfordshire Light Infantry Chron. 1895 26 Lt.-Colonels... (1) Johnstone, J., p.s.c. 16 Mar. 92.
1920 Punch 24 Mar. 225/1 Upon my first arriving on his Staff he had said to me, ‘Oh, by the way, P.S.C., of course?’..‘You have Passed Staff College, of course?’ he said a little less affably.
2002 BBC Monitoring Internat. Rep. (Nexis) 28 June Some 31 army officers were conferred with Passed Staff College (PSC) award, certificates and prizes for best students.
psi n. pounds per square inch.
ΚΠ
1941 Science 23 May 494/2 The American Standards Association reports the completion of the revision of American standard abbreviations for scientific and engineering terms... It includes such common terms as pounds per square inch (psi), dollar ($), and dozen (doz).
1959 Motor 2 Sept. 75/2 This is with 5·90–13 Goodyear tubed tyres, inflated to 26 p.s.i. back and front.
1989 Classical Sportscar Feb. 21/4 When warm, oil pressure settles at a steady 30psi.
psia n. pounds per square inch absolute.
ΚΠ
1945 G. S. Earlie Current Abbrev. 161 psia, pound or pounds per square inch.
1951 C. L. Brown Basic Thermodynamics vi. 89 The gas expands isentropically and is exhausted at 15 psia.
1996 Introd. to Official List (Centrica plc) 109 At the datum depth of 3,400ft TVDSS, the initial reservoir pressure was 1,860 psia and the initial temperature 90°F.
PSS n. Computing and Telecommunications packet switching service (also system); packet switch stream.
ΚΠ
1979 Trade Marks Jrnl. 18 Aug. 1870/1 PSS [as part of a specific graphic design]... Electronic computers..data processing apparatus..for use in data communications apparatus, all for use in packet, switching (switched-message) installations for data transmission.
1981 Electronics 25 Aug. 228/2 The four- or eight-port multiplexer is compatible with the gte Telenet and the Tymnet networks in the U.S., Datapac in Canada, pss and ipss in the UK.
2000 Credit Managem. Apr. 22 The main public data network in this country is Packet Switch Stream (PSS) which is run by BT.
PST n. Pacific Standard Time.
ΚΠ
1937 Zanesville (Ohio) Signal 26 July 2 (advt.) Hear the trio—the quartette—and all of Benny's boys swing the popular favorites. Every Tuesday at 8:30 pm E.S.T...5:30 pm P.S.T., over WABC-Columbia Network.
1978 J. M. Pasachoff & M. L. Kutner University Astron. v. 125 The eclipse would take place at 12:46 pm E.S.T., 11:46 am C.S.T., 10:46 am M.S.T., and 9:46 am P.S.T.
1994 Western Living Oct. 54/2 Nelson, PST, and Cranbrook, MST, both observe daylight time.
psv n. public service vehicle.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > means of travel > a conveyance > vehicle > public service vehicle > [noun]
psv1932
1932 Motor Transport 28 Mar. 351/3 A bus driver who was refused a p.s.v. driving licence..has appealed with success to a bench of magistrates.
1972 Police Rev. 1 Dec. 1577/1 A licensed p.s.v. is not being used as a p.s.v. when it is not carrying passengers.
1988 Truck Dec. 56/4 Cars, fork-lift trucks, and psvs are included now.
PT n. (also P/T, Pt, p/t) part-time (chiefly in employment advertisements).
ΚΠ
1958 Times 3 Sept. 1/3 St. Cyprian's School. Cape Town... P.T. post vacant now, fare paid.
1976 Jrnl. Human Resources 11 212 The graduate degree dummy variables are all highly significant, with the science or engineering PhD, Grad/MBA-Pt, and MBA/Full-Time degrees contributing $5,313, $2,043, and $1,5000, respectively, to real starting salary.
2002 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 3 Nov. iv. 10/6 (advt.) Growing group of service-oriented radiologists looking for like-minded associates. F/T or P/T, private office or hospital,..depending on your career/lifestyle objectives.
P.T. n. (also p.t.) physical training.
ΘΚΠ
society > education > [noun] > systematic education > physical education
physical education1748
physical training1839
physical torture1900
P.T.1922
phys. ed.1926
PE1956
1922 T. E. Lawrence Let. 1 Sept. (1938) 364 If I can get able to sleep, and to eat the food, and to go through the P.T. I'll be all right.
1965 W. Lamb Posture & Gesture viii. 107 If a woman she may be respected for her vigour but is too likely to be drained of feminine attractiveness—‘P.T. hag’ is the profession's own term.
1992 G. M. Fraser Quartered Safe out Here 59 Put yer p.t. shoes on, leave yer 'at, an' report to Mr Gale.
PT n. purchase tax.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > fees and taxes > impost, due, or tax > duty on goods > [noun] > duty on goods bought or sold
alcabala1595
purchase tax1883
sales tax1921
PT1958
1958 People 4 May 2/1 (advt.) Victor £498 plus £250 7s. PT.
1966 Punch 27 July 132/2 The Government's determination not to flinch, if necessary, from a ten per cent PT increase on musical instruments?
PTA n. (also P.-T.-A.) Parent–Teacher Association.
ΘΚΠ
society > education > educational administration > school administration > [noun] > parent-teacher association
school committee1877
parent–teacher association1914
PTA1925
parents' meeting1956
1925 Kansas City (Missouri) Star 4 Feb. 11/1 (heading) P.-T.-A. plans celebration.
1962 L. Deighton Ipcress File xviii. 106 The old stuff about re-treads, P.T.A. meetings, and where to go for a good divorce.
1990 Times Educ. Suppl. 8 June a3/3 The association criticized [the Education Secretary] for failing to give them the right to set up PTAs in every school.
PT boat n. U.S. patrol torpedo boat.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > war vessel > [noun] > torpedo boat
torpedo boat1810
torpedo-vessel1877
torpedo craft1885
torpedo destroyer1896
T.B.1897
mosquito boat1911
oily wad1925
MTB1936
PT boat1941
torpilleur1950
1941 N.Y. Times 12 Jan. v. 8/6 Three shifts are making every minute count in the construction of the PT boats.
1992 D. Morgan Rising in West iii. ix. 157 He was able to get a job at the Oklahoma Steel Casting Company, making parts for PT boats.
PTC n. Chemistry phenylthiocarbamide.
ΚΠ
1932 A. F. Blakeslee & A. L. Fox in Jrnl. Heredity 23 97/1 The long name, phenyl-thio-carbamide, we are shortening to the nickname P.T.C., an abbreviation which we shall use throughout this paper.
1965 Punch 10 Nov. 688/1 Tallness, or colour-blindness, or the ability to taste the substance known as PTC (phenylthiocarbamide) are inherited.
2003 University Wire (Nexis) 28 Feb. Some researchers have suggested a link between a person's ability to taste PTC and food intake, ultimately affecting health.
PTFE n. (also P.T.F.E.) Chemistry polytetrafluoroethylene.
ΚΠ
1949 Electronic Engin. 21 220/1 Two new types of seals will shortly be available, one of which is made from an entirely new material, polytetrafluorethylene (P.T.F.E.).
1973 Materials & Technol. VI. viii. 545 Trade names of PTFE plastics include: Teflon (USA); Fluon (UK); and Hostaflon TF (Germany).
1991 Which? Jan. 23/3 If the leak is from the joint between the valve and the radiator, it can be sealed using PTFE tape.
P.T.I. n. physical training instructor.
ΚΠ
1909 Army & Navy Gaz. 1 May 430/3 Foil v. Foil (P.T.I's only).
1964 J. Hale Grudge Fight vi. 92 Buck Jones the P.T.I.
1998 Gay Times Aug. (Classified Ads section) 6/2 Ex Royal Marine P.T.I. offers therapeutic massage, body shaving and herbal bath. Small gym available.
P.T.O. n. (also pto) please turn over (written at the foot of a page to indicate that the text continues on the reverse).
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > reading > [noun] > instruction to please turn over
P.T.O.1821
1821 Admiralty Surv. Returns Officers' Services (P.R.O.: ADM 9/11/3924) Your very humble Servant James Sanders..P.T.O.
1990 M. Wiggins Bet they'll miss us when we're Gone (1991) 72 Zee. o. zed. is Dutch-in-short for zie ommezijde, meaning something close to p.t.o. or flip it, bub.
PTO n. (also pto) power take-off.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > equipment > machine > machines which impart power > engine > [noun] > transmission of power
take-off1896
power take-off1928
PTO1951
1951 A. B. Lees Farming Machinery xv. 144 If p.t.o.-driven trailers of compact design could be made available to hill farmers at an economic price they might well prove to be a major factor in increasing food production from marginal land.
1990 Wheels & Tracks No. 32. 1/3 The PTO-driven alternator, the gun stay and the axle damping gear was stripped off these C9/B vehicles towards the end of the war.
PTSD n. Psychology post-traumatic stress disorder.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > mental health > mental illness > degree or type of mental illness > [noun] > stress
post-traumatic stress syndrome1960
post-traumatic stress disorder1980
PTSD1982
technostress1982
the world > health and disease > mental health > mental illness > degree or type of mental illness > [adjective] > stress
PTSD1982
technostressed1984
1982 Southern Med. Jrnl. 75 704/2 It should be noted that PTSD can occur as a result of any severe trauma, such as rape or an automobile accident, and not necessarily from combat.
2003 Sydney Morning Herald (Nexis) 5 June (Health & Science section) 3 Some women have such awful experiences of childbirth that they suffer the same symptoms flashbacks, anxiety and so on as anyone suffering from PTSD.
PUFA n. Chemistry polyunsaturated fatty acid, a fatty acid containing two or more double bonds between carbon atoms.
ΚΠ
1957 Proc. Soc. Exper. Biol. & Med. 96 707 (caption) PUFA = polyunsaturated fatty acids; HCO = hydrogenated coconut oil; CO = corn oil.
1998 Good Health Mag. Mar. 44/1 There are two types of PUFA important to human health—the omega-6 type widely available in nuts, seeds and the cooking oils extracted from them, and the less readily found omega-3 type.
2012 J. Seitz & I. Ojima in F. Kratz et al. Drug Delivery in Oncol. I. xli. 1323 The ratio of certain PUFAs present in the diet can lead to either a stimulation or inhibition of cancer growth.
PUO n. (also P.U.O.) Medicine pyrexia of unknown origin.
ΚΠ
1918 E. Brittain Let. 12 May in V. Brittain et al. Lett. Lost Generation (2012) 390 I..am now much better. I think it is PUO or something of the sort much like what you had on leave.
1934 V. M. Yeates Winged Victory iii. ix. 365 ‘I wish you'd tell me what PUO means.’ ‘What do you want to know that for?’ But the M.O. overcame his professional love of mystery, and added: ‘It stands for Pyrexia of Unknown Origin.’
1984 J. R. Tighe & D. R. Davies Pathol. (ed. 4) xiii. 110 The patient may present as a pyrexia of unknown origin (PUO).
PUS n. Permanent Under-Secretary.
ΚΠ
1925 Minute 14 July in P.R.O. WO 32/4840 (heading) Remarks of the P.U.S.
1974 P. Gore-Booth With Great Truth & Respect 324 What governed the whole of my life in this final period was the circumstance that, apart from the Secretary of State, the PUS was the only person in the Office whose obligation it was to have some knowledge of everything.
2000 Guardian (Nexis) 11 Nov. 28 As PUS, it fell to Greenhill to attend the Queen when she received the letters of credence of foreign ambassadors accredited to her.
PV n. (also pV, pv) Electronics photovoltaic, photovoltaics.
ΚΠ
1973 Acronyms & Initialisms Dict. (Gale Res. Co.) (ed. 4) (at cited word) PV, photovoltaic.
1981 Science 26 June 1472 At present, PV systems produce electricity at $0.50 to $2 per kilowatt-hour, roughly an order of magnitude higher than the cost of electricity supplied by electric utilities.
2001 Harrowsmith Country Life Aug. 46/1 The couple's solar system—a dozen PV (photovoltaic) panels in the backyard to collect the sun's energy—..is reserved strictly for lighting.
pv. n. Biology pathovar.
ΚΠ
1980 Ann. Phytopathol. Soc. Japan 46 455 Serovars B-I and B-II of Xanthomonas campestris pv. oryzae showed severe autoagglutination in CaCl2 solution.
1989 Appl. & Environmental Microbiol. 55 2985/1 We also performed limited investigations of the production of SOD and catalase in Pseudomonas syringae pv. phaseolicola.
PVA n. (also pva) Chemistry (a) polyvinyl alcohol; (b) polyvinyl acetate.
ΚΠ
1941 Jrnl. Amer. Chem. Soc. 63 2745/1 The particle size of the protective colloid and the rate of hydrogenation have been related by studies of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA).
1953 Industr. & Engin. Chem. 45 759/1 Polyvinylacetate (PVA) emulsions are now commonly used in numerous industrial applications.
2003 Evening Standard (Nexis) 3 Dec. 31 This new daily series asked us to get out our PVA glue, our cardboard, and even our sticky-back plastic, so we could make ‘personal gifts’.
PVC n. (also pvc) Chemistry polyvinyl chloride.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > chemistry > polymer chemistry > resins and plastics > [noun] > thermoplastic resins > PVC
polyvinyl chloride1930
PVC1941
society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > synthetic resins and plastics > [noun] > plastic > capable of hardening after heating or (re)shaping > types of
polystyrol1873
polyoxymethylene1908
polystyrene1927
polyvinyl chloride1930
polyacetal1931
polyformal1935
polypropylene1935
PVC1941
polyacrylic1959
phenoxy1962
polyallomer1962
ionomer1964
parylene1965
polypro1986
1941 Electronic Engin. 14 541/2 Polyvinyl chloride and copolymers. Examples—Welvic, B.X.P.'s, ‘P.V.C.’, Chlorovene.
1971 New Scientist 10 June 630 The PVC-coated fabrics that have previously been the main synthetic material used in women's footwear.
1991 Garbage Jan. 37/3 Because of its low melting point and its chemical composition, PVC is the pariah of plastics recycling.
PVP n. (also p.v.p.) Chemistry polyvinyl pyrrolidone.
ΚΠ
1951 Lancet 19 May 1096/1 A Saline solution incorporating a P.V.P. compound was prepared and used in Germany with some success as a plasma substitute during the 1939–45 war.
1966 J. A. Brydson Plastics Materials xiv. 286 In the field of cosmetics p.v.p. is used because of its unique property of forming loose addition compounds with skin and hair. Hair lacquers may be formulated based on 4–6% p.v.p. in ethyl alcohol.
1991 New Age Jrnl. Apr. 68/2 Lipstick may contain several substances known to cause cancer in animals: PVP plastic, paraffin wax, saccharin, mineral oil, and artificial colors.
PVS n. Medicine persistent vegetative state.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > disorders of internal organs > stupor or coma > [noun] > persistent vegetative state
persistent vegetative state1972
PVS1983
1983 Deciding to Forego Life-sustaining Treatm. (U.S. President's Comm. for Study of Ethical Probl. in Med.) 178 Nearly all such long-term survivors are in the diagnostic category of ‘persistent vegetative state’ (PVS).
1996 Independent 24 Jan. ii. 28/4 Now many patients who, 20 years ago, would have died quick and painless deaths, linger on in PVS.
p.w. n. (also P.W.) per week.
ΚΠ
1939 London Weekly Advertiser 7 June 6/5 35/- P.W. Incl.
1976 Burnham-on-Sea Gaz. 20 Apr. 7/7 (advt.) I have sacked my advertising man. I have been paying him £1.15 pw and what do I get.
1994 Jerusalem Post (Nexis) 23 June 7 Renting a craft suitable for a family of five costs about 500-700 p.w. A cottage for five ranges from 300 to 400 p.w.
PWA n. (also pwa) person with AIDS.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > bacterial or viral disorders > [noun] > viral disorders > Aids > person
PWA1985
1985 HERA (Nexis) 30 Nov. 8 We're still awaiting publication of the CDC's negative antibody studies of family members and those routinely in direct contact with the body fluids of PWA's.
1994 Guardian 10 June (Suppl.) 15/4 Before you write me off as just another pwa Patsy, I do exercise hard, sleep well, and depilate regularly.
2003 Jakarta Post (Nexis) 12 May Among other parties involved are government institutions..the community and people with HIV/AIDS (PWAs).
PWD n. Public Works Department.
ΚΠ
1909 Cent. Dict. Suppl. P.W.D., an abbreviation of Public Works Department.
1958 G. Durrell Encounters with Animals iv. 168 There was the little cockney P.W.D. man who..offered to drive me a hundred-odd miles, over atrocious African roads.
2003 Times of India (Nexis) 4 June The protestors finally gave passage to Jadhavrao, but not without getting a promise that he would return with public works department (PWD) minister Vijaysingh Mohite-Patil.
PWR n. pressurized-water reactor.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > physics > atomic nucleus > nuclear fission > nuclear reactor > [noun] > cooled by water
pressurized-water reactor1953
PWR1954
light water reactor1956
LWR1974
1954 Mech. Engin. July 585/1 The Westinghouse Electric Corporation, as of July 1953, was assigned responsibility for the development and design of a pressurized light-water reactor (PWR).
1990 New Scientist 6 Oct. 19/1 The international teams will inspect ageing nuclear plant... They will examine a number of 440-megawatt PWRs, known as VVERs.
PX n. U.S. Military Post Exchange.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > trading place > place where retail transactions made > [noun] > shop > shop at military post
commissary1846
post exchange1892
PX1918
1918 Afloat & Ashore 10 July 6 Brown feels all wrought up 'cause he missed his draft at the ‘PX’ hour.
1975 Publishers Weekly 13 Jan. 59/1 Two American truck drivers get lost in Vietnam and take shelter in an abandoned supply depot that is still stocked with PX goodies like stereos, TVs and canned food.
2002 Guelph (Ont., Canada) Mercury a9 Army troops here saw the long-awaited opening of their first PX, or Postal Exchange, a military store offering at least a few of the comforts and vices of home.
p-y-o n. (also PYO) = pick-your-own adj.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > other trading methods > [noun]
fair trading1685
grocery1689
carriage trade1720
sale or (formerly and) return1795
Labour Exchange1828
security system1831
smousingc1876
postal trade1902
triangular trade1934
switch trading1967
relationship management1970
p-y-o1977
counter-trade1978
pick-your-own1980
counter-trading1983
fair trade1986
carry trade1994
society > trade and finance > other trading methods > [adjective] > types of trading methods or systems
pick-your-own1941
p-y-o1977
1977 Econ. Res. Ser. xxii. 17 Some American farmers rely very heavily on p-y-o and 100% p-y-o farms have been planned.
2003 Farmers Weekly (Nexis) 31 Jan. 3 Full time fruit manager Douglas Baxter runs the 8ha (20 acres) used to grow soft fruit for PYO and jam making.
P.Z. exercise n. [ < the P and Z signalling flags: see quot. 1962] Navy a tactical exercise carried out at sea.
ΚΠ
1905 Trans. Inst. Naval Architects 47 ii. 305 The P.Z. exercises have been so conducted as to be deceiving.
1916 ‘Taffrail’ Pincher Martin viii. 140 Gunnery, gunnery, toujours gunnery—unless it was torpedo-running, steam tactics, or P.Z. Exercises—was carried on throughout the year.
1962 W. Granville Dict. Sailors' Slang 85/2 PZ, tactical exercise in the Fleet at sea in peacetime when the Code flags PZ were run up at the start of the exercise.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2005; most recently modified version published online December 2022).
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