Chapter M (4)

=ping,= to urge, push. Mirror for Mag., Fulgentius, st. 9. Still in use in the west country, see EDD. (s.v. Ping, vb.^{2} 1). OE. _pyngan_, to prick, L. _pungere_.

=pingle,= to work in an ineffectual way, to trifle, to ‘piddle’. Women’s Rights, 152 (NED). Hence, _pingler_, a trifler, Two Angry Women, ii. 2 (Coomes); Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, 109). ‘Pingle’ is in prov. use in this sense in Scotland and the north of England, see EDD. (s.v. Pingle, vb.^{1} 2). Cp. Swed. dial. _pyngla_, to be busy about small matters (Rietz).

=pinion,= the name of an obsolete game at cards. Interlude of Youth, (ed. 1849, p. 38). See NED.

=pink,= to stab with any pointed weapon. B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iv. 2; a stab with a rapier or dagger, Ford, Lady’s Trial, iii. 1 (Fulgoso). Low G. _pinken_, to strike (Schambach).

=pink,= a sailing vessel. Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, ii. 6. 17. See Nares and NED. Du. _pinck_, ‘a pinke or a fishers boate; a sounding barke’ (Hexham).

=pink,= to contract, make small (the eyes). Heywood, Spider and Fly (Nares); contracted small (said of the eyes), ‘Plumpie Bacchus with pinke eyne’, Ant. and Cl. ii. 7. 121. Du. _pincken_, to shut the eyes (Hexham).

=pinkany,= a small, narrow, blinking eye; a tiny or dear little
eye; ‘Those Pinkanies of thine’, Field, Woman a Weathercock, iv.
2 (Wagtail). Applied to a girl, usually as a term of endearment,
Porter, Angry Women, iii. 2 (Philip).

=pink-eyed,= having small, narrow, or half-closed eyes; ‘Maids
. . . that were pinke-eied and had verie small eies they termed
_Ocellæ_’, Holland, Pliny, xi. 335; spelt _pinky-eyed_, Kyd,
Soliman, v. 3. 7 (Hazlitt’s Dodsley, v. 359). A Lanc. word, see
EDD. (s.v. Pink, adj.^{1} 4).

=pinnace,= a go-between, in love affairs. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, ii. 1 (Overdo). A _fig._ sense of ‘pinnace’, a small attendant vessel.

=pinner,= a ‘pinder’, one who impounds stray cattle. Greene, George-a-Greene, i (Bettris, 1. 236); ed. Dyce, p. 256, col. 1. ‘Pinder’ (or ‘pinner’) is in prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Pind, vb. 1 (1)). ME. _pyndare_ of beestys, ‘inclusor’ (Prompt. EETS. 336, see note, no. 1638). See Dict. (s.v. Pinder).

=pinson,= a thin-soled shoe of some kind, Withal (ed. 1608, p. 211); ‘Pynson, sho, _caffignon_’, Palsgrave. ME. _pynson_, sok (Prompt. EETS., see note, no. 1642).

=pintas, las,= the Spanish name for the card-game called basset; ‘_A las Pintas_, (playing) at basset’, Adventures of Five Hours, iv. 1 (Diego); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, xv. 265. Span. _pintas_, basset; pl. of _pinta_, ‘among Gamesters a peep in a card’ (Stevens).

=pion,= to dig, trench, excavate. Hence _pyonings_, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 10. 63. _Pioned_, trenched, Tempest, iv. 1. 64. OF. _pioner_, to dig (Godefroy). See =piner.=

=pip,= a spot on a card; hence, a unit; ‘Thirty-two years old, which is a pip out’, Massinger, Fatal Dowry, ii. 2 (Bellapert). The allusion is to a game called _One-and-thirty_, which differs from 32 by 1. So also in Shirley, Love’s Cruelty, i. 2 (Hippolito). See =peep.=

=pipple,= to blow with a gentle sound (of the wind). Skelton, A Replycacion, ed. Dyce, i. 207; id., Garl. of Laurell, 676. Hence ‘pippler’, a name for the aspen in Devon, see EDD. (s.v. Pipple).

=pique,= a depraved or diseased appetite. Butler, Hud. iii. 2. 809. L. _pica_, a depraved appetite; a F. form (not found).

=pirrie, pirry,= a blast of wind, a squall. Elyot, Governour, i. 17, § 5; spelt _perry_, Look about You, sc. 29 (Richard), in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 482. ME. _pyry_, a storm of wind (Prompt. EETS., see note, no. 1643).

=pishery-pashery,= trifling talk. Dekker, Shoem. Holiday, iii. 5 (Eyre); finery, fallals, id., v. 4 (Eyre).

=pist!,= hist!, an interjection, to draw attention. Middleton, No Wit like a Woman’s, i. 3 (Sir O. Twi.).

=pistolet,= a name given to certain foreign gold coins, ranging in value from 5_s._ 10_d._ to 6_s._ 8_d._ Proclamation, May 4, 1553 (NED.); in later times = pistole, worth about 16_s._ 6_d._ ‘Each Pistolet exchang’d at sixteen shillings six pence’, Heylin, Examen Hist. i. 268 (NED.); B. Jonson, Alchemist, iii. 2 (Face); also called _a double pistolet_, Fletcher, Span. Curate, i. 1 (Jamie).

=pitch,= a vertex, head; also, a projecting part of the body, the shoulder, the hip; ‘His manly pitch’ (used for both shoulders, collectively), Marlowe, 1 Tamburlaine, ii. 1. 11.

=pitch and pay,= to pay down money at once, pay ready money. Hen. V, ii. 3. 51; Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable; i. 2 (Blurt); Mirror for Mag., Warwicke, st. 14; Tusser, Husbandry, § 113. 24.

=plaça,= a square, parade, public walk. Shirley, The Brothers, i. 1 (Carlos). Span. _plaça_ (_plaza_).

=plackerd,= the forepart of a woman’s petticoat; ‘For fear of the cut-purse, on a sudden she’ll swap thee into her plackerd’, Greene, Friar Bacon, i. 3. See NED. (s.v. Placard).

=placket,= an apron or petticoat: hence _transf._ the wearer of a petticoat, a woman, Tr. and Cr. ii. 3. 22; the opening or slit at the top of a skirt or petticoat, King Lear, iii. 4. 100; a pocket in a woman’s skirt, ‘Which instrument . . . was found in my Lady Lambert’s placket’, Hist. Cromwell (NED.).

=plage,= a region, country. Marlowe, 1 Tamburlaine, iv. 4 (Tamb.); 2 Tamb. i. 1 (Orcanes). F. _plage_, region (Cotgr.). L. _plaga_, a region.

=plaice-mouth,= a mouth drawn on one side. Spelt _plaise-mouth_, B. Jonson, Silent Woman, iii. 2 (Epicene).

=plaie,= wound. Surrey, tr. of Aeneid, iv. 2. F. _plaie_; L. _plaga_.

=plain,= to complain. King Lear, iii. 1. 39; ‘_Plaindre_, to plaine,’ Cotgrave.

=plain,= to plane. Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, v. 322. Hence, _Plainer_, a carpenter’s plane, id., v. 314.

=plain-song,= a simple melody. Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 41; hence, ‘the plain-song cuckoo’, Mids. Night’s D. iii. 1.

=planch,= to board. _Planched_, covered with boards, Meas. for M. iv. 1. 30; _to plaunche on_, to clap on (something broad and flat), Gammer Gurton’s Needle, i. 2. 12. F. _planche_, a plank.

=plancher,= a wooden floor, a flooring of planks; used in pl. Arden of Fev. i. 1. 42; also boards (of a ship); Drayton, Pol. iii. 272. F. _plancher_, ‘a boorded floor’ (Cotgr.).

=plange,= to lament, grieve. Warner, Alb. England, bk. v, p. 25, st. 31. L. _plangere_.

=planipedes,= pantomimes or entertainments with dancing; ‘The common players of interludes called _Planipedes_, played barefoote vpon the floore’, Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, bk. i, c. 15; p. 49. L. _planipedes_ (Juvenal).

=plant,= the sole of the foot; ‘Knotty legs, and plants of clay’, B. Jonson, Masque of Oberon, song 5. F. _plante_, the sole. L. _planta_.

=plasma,= a form, mould, shape; ‘There is a Plasma, or deepe pit’, Heywood, Iron Age, Part II (Orestes, in a mad speech); vol. iii, p. 424. Gk. πλάσμα, anything formed or moulded.

=platic,= an astrological term used of an ‘aspect’ of a planet (NED.). B. Jonson, Staple of News, iv. 1 (P. Can.). Spelt _platique_, Fletcher, Bloody Brother, iv. 2. Med. L. _platicus_, late Gk. πλατυκός, -ικός, broad, diffuse.

=plaudite, plaudity,= shout of applause, approval; ‘Cristall plaudities’, Tourneur, Revenger’s Tragedy, ii. 1. L. _plaudite_, applaud ye.

=play-pheer,= playfellow. Two Noble Kinsmen, iv. 3. 103. See =fere.=

=pleasant,= to render pleasant; ‘Some pleasant their lives’, Manchester Al Mondo (ed. 1639, p. 51); ‘This tedious mortality, pleasant it how man can’, id., p. 62.

=plight,= to fold, pleat, to intertwine into one combined texture. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 6. 7; _plighted_, folded, Milton, Comus, 301; _pleated_, King Lear, i. 1. 283 (Quarto edd.); Greene, Description of the Shepherd, 21 (Dyce, 304). ME. _plyte_, to fold (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. ii. 1204). Anglo-F. _plit_ (Gower) = Norm. F. _pleit_ (Burguy), whence E. _plait_. See Dict. (s.v. Plait).

=plompe,= a cluster, clump, mass; ‘A plompe of wood’, Morte Arthur, leaf 30, back, 19; bk. i, c. 16 (end); _plompes_, troops, bands; Gascoigne, Fruites of Warre, st. 129. See =plump.=

=plotform,= a scheme, design, plan, contrivance. Grim the Collier, ii. 1 (Clinton); in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, viii. 423; a level place constructed for mounting guns, Gascoigne, Art of Venerie, Works (ed. 1870, ii. 304). See Dict. (s.v. Plot), and Notes on Eng. Etym., p. 219.

=plough.= The parts of a plough are enumerated in Gervase Markham’s Complete Husbandman (1614), quoted in Notes to Fitzherbert’s Husbandry, p. 128, where they are fully explained. I merely enumerate them here. (1) _Plough-beam_, a large and long piece of timber, forming an arch for the other parts; (2) _The skeath_ (_sheath_), a piece of wood 2½ feet long, mortised into the beam; (3) _Principal hale_, the left-handle; also called _plough-tail_ or _plough-start_; (4) _Plough-head_ or _share-beam_, about 3 feet in length; (5) _Plough-spindles_ or _rough-staves_, two round pieces of wood that joined the handles together; (6) _Righthand-hale_, or _plough-stilt_, smaller and weaker than the other; (7) _Plough-rest_, a small piece of wood, fixed to the plough-head and righthand-hale; (8) _Shelboard_, i.e. shield-board, a strong board on the right side of the plough; (9) _Coulter_, a long piece of iron in the front, to cut the soil; (10) _Share_; (11) _Plough-foot_, or _plough-shoe_, before the coulter, to regulate the depth of the furrow. The ploughman also had with him a _plough-mall_ or small mallet; and, originally, a _plough-staff_ or _aker-staff_, for clearing the mould-board when required.

=plough-staff,= an instrument like a paddle for cleaning a plough, or clearing it of weeds. Tusser, Husbandry, § 17. 21. In use in Scotland and the north country, see EDD. (s.v. Plough, II (49)).

=Plowden.= Proverb: _The case is altered, quoth Plowden._ For various explanations see Grose, Local Proverbs (ed. 1790), Shropshire, and Ray, Proverbial Phrases (under A), ed. Bohn, 147.

=ployden;= ‘A stub-bearded John-a-Stile with a ployden’s face’, Marston, Dutch Courtezan, iii. 1 (Crispinella). Not explained.

=pluck:= in phr. _to pluck down a side_, in card-playing, to cause the loss or hazard of the side or party with which a person plays. Beaumont and Fl., Maid’s Tragedy, ii. 1 (Dula). See Nares.

=plumb,= perpendicularly; ‘Plumb down he drops’, Milton, P. L. ii. 933. In prov. use in various parts of England, also in U.S.A., see EDD. (s.v. Plum, adj.^{1}). F. ‘_à-plomb_, perpendicularly, downright’ (Cotgr.). See Dict. (s.v. Plump).

=plume,= said of a hawk, to pluck feathers from a bird; also, to pluck, despoil. Davenant, The Wits, ii. 1 (Ample); Dryden, Absalom, 920.

=plummet,= a leaden bullet, hurled from a sling. North, tr. of Plutarch, M. Antonius, § 23 (in Shak. Plut., p. 190); a sounding-lead, used _fig._ a criterion of truth, ‘Lay all to the Line and Plummet of the written word’, Gilpin, Demonology, iii. 17. 140 (NED.).

=plump,= a troop, flock; ‘A whole plump of rogues’, Beaumont and Fl., Double Marriage, iii. 2 (Guard); ‘A plump of fowl’, Dryden, tr. of Aeneid, xii. 374; Theodore and Honoria, 316. See Nares. See =plompe.=

=plunge,= to overwhelm (with trouble or difficulty); ‘(He) was so plunged and gravelled with three lines of Seneca’, Sir T. Browne, Rel. Med. i. 21.

=plunge,= a critical situation, crisis, a dilemma. Greene, Looking Glasse, iii. 2. Phr.: _to put to a plunge_, Middleton, Roaring Girl, iv. 1 (Sir Alexander). ‘_Il est au bout de son breviaire_, he is at a plunge or nonplus’, Cotgrave (s.v. Breviaire). Cp. the Northants phrase, ‘I was put to a plunge’, see EDD. (s.v. Plunge, sb.^{1}).

=Plymouth cloak,= a cudgel or staff, carried by one who walked _in cuerpo_, and thus facetiously assumed to take the place of a cloak; ‘Shall I walke in a Plimouth Cloake (that’s to say) like a rogue, in my hose and doublet, and a crabtree cudgell in my hand?’, Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, iii. 2 (Matheo); ‘A Plymouth cloak, that is, a cane or staff’, Ray’s Proverbs out of Fuller’s Worthies (ed. Bohn, 201); Grose, Local Proverbs in Glossary, 1790. See Nares.

=pocas palabras,= the Spanish for ‘few words’. Wonderfull Yeare 1603 (ed. 1732, p. 46); _paucas pallabris_, Tam. Shrew, Induct. i. 5. Span. _palabra_, Med. L. _parabola_, ‘verbum, sermo’ (Ducange); a parable, similitude (Vulgate, in N. T.) See Stanford.

=poinado,= a poniard. Heywood, The Royal King, vol. vi, p. 70; Return from Parnassus, i. 2 (Judicio); ‘_Poinard_, or _Poinado_’, Phillips, 1658.

=poinet, poynet,= an ornament for the wrist, a wristlet or bracelet. J. Heywood, The Four P’s, in Anc. Brit. Drama, i. 10, col. 2; Hazlitt’s Dodsley, i. 351 (altered to _poignet_). F. _poignet_, wrist; _poing_, the fist. See NED.

=point,= a tagged lace for attaching hose to the doublet, and for fastening various parts where buttons are now used. Tam. Shrew, iii. 2. 49. Very common, and the perpetual subject of jokes and quibbles; 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 238; Twelfth Nt. i. 5. 25.

=point:= in phr. _point of war_, a short strain sounded as a signal by a trumpeter. 2 Hen. IV, iv. 1. 52; Greene, Orl. Fur., ed. Dyce, p. 94; Peele, Edw. I, i (Longshanks); ed. Dyce, p. 378. See NED. (s.v. Point, sb.^{1} 9).

=point:= in phr. _to point_ [F. _à point_], to the smallest detail, completely; ‘Armed to point’, Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 16; Tempest, i. 2. 194; ‘Are ye all fit?’ 1 _Gent._ ‘To point, sir’, Fletcher, Chances, i. 4. 2.

=point-device= (=-devyse=)=,= completely, perfectly, in every point. Twelfth Nt. ii. 5. 176; extremely precise, scrupulous to the point of perfection, As You Like It, iii. 2. 401. ME. _poynt devys_: ‘Her nose was wrought at poynt devys’ (Chaucer, Rom. Rose, 1215); Anglo F. _à point devis_, or _devis à point_, arranged to a proper point or degree. See NED.

=pointed,= _pp._ appointed. Spenser, F. Q. vii. 7. 12.

=poise,= a weight (for exercise), a dumb-bell; ‘_Poyses_ made of leadde’, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 16, § 1; _poyse_, heavy fall; Spenser, F. Q. i. 11. 54. See =peise.=

=poisure,= poise, balance, effect. Beaumont and Fl., Wit without Money, i. 1 (Valentine).

=poking-stick, poker,= a stick or iron for setting the plaits of ruffs. Wint. Tale, iv. 4. 228; Beaumont and Fl., Mons. Thomas, iii. 2. 2. _Poker_, Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, ii. 1 (Bellafront).

=poldavy, polldavy,= a sort of coarse canvas; ‘_Poldavy_, or buckram’, Peacham, Comp. Gentleman, c. 6, p. 54; Howell, Letters, vol. i, sect. 2, let. 10 (1621). See Nares, and NED. Named from _Poldavide_, dep. Finisterre, France; near Daoulas, whence E. _dowlas_ (Phil. Soc. Trans., May, 1904). The name is Breton, meaning ‘David’s pool’.

=poldron;= see =pouldron.=

=pole-ax;= see =pollax.=

=polehead,= a ‘poll-head’, a tadpole. Marston, What you Will, ii. 1 (Quadratus); ‘_Cavesot_, a polehead, black vermine wherof frogs do come’, Cotgrave. Still in common use in the North; in Banffsh. the form is _powet_ (or _powit_); see EDD. (s.v. Powhead). ME. _polhevede_ (Gen. and Ex., 2977).

=polepennery,= extortion of pence; ‘To scrape for more rent is polepennery’, Wily Beguiled, sc. ii (1st quarto, 1606).

=politien,= a politician. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, bk. iii, c. 4, pp. 158, 159; _politians_, pl., Lyly, Sappho, i. 3. OF. _policien_, a citizen, a politician (Godefroy).

=poll,= to cut off the head of an animal, Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xvi. 112; to cut short the hair, Greene, Upst. Courtier, D. iij. b. (NED.); to plunder by excessive rent-raising, More’s Utopia (ed. Lumby, 29); _to poll and pill_, Bacon, Hen. VII (ed. Lumby, 148); Spenser, F. Q. v. 2. 6.

=pollard,= an animal without horns, either one that has lost its horns, or one of a hornless variety, used jocosely of a man who is not a cuckold. Beaumont and Fl., Philaster, v. 4 (Captain). See Nares.

=pollax, pole-ax,= a battle-axe; ‘At hande strokes they use not swordes but pollaxes’, More’s Utopia (ed. Lumby, 141); a halbert carried by the body-guard of a king or great personage, ‘_Bec de faulcon_, a fashion of Pollax borne by the Peeres of France, and by the French King’s Pensioners’, Cotgrave; ‘_Mazzière_, a halberdier or poleaxe man, such as the Queene of England’s gentlemen pencioners are’, Florio.

=pollenger,= a pollard tree. Tusser, Husbandry, § 35. 13.

=poller,= one who exacts fees, an extortioner. Spelt _poler_, Bacon, Essay 56, 4.

=poll-hatchet,= a poll-axe; hence, one who wields a poll-hatchet; a term of abuse or contempt. Spelt _powle-hatchett_, Skelton, Garl. of Laurell, 613; and see Skelton, ed. Dyce, i. 23, l. 29.

=polony,= a sausage made at Bologna, Italy. In Lord Cromwell, iii. 2. 131, Hodge, writing from Bologna, says that he is ‘among the Polonyan Sasiges’. See Dict.

=pomeroy,= a variety of apple. Spelt _pom-roy_, Peacham, Comp. Gentleman, c. 1, § 2. See NED.

=pomewater,= a large juicy kind of apple. L. L. L. iv. 2. 4; Dekker, Old Fortunatus, iv. 2 (Shadow); ‘When a pome-water, bestucke with a few rotten cloves shall be more worth than the honesty of a hypocrite’, Vox Græculi (in Brand’s Pop. Antiq., ed. 1848, i. 17). A Hampshire word (EDD.).

=pommado,= an exercise of vaulting on a horse with one hand on the pommel of the saddle. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, ii. 1 (Mercury), where we find ‘the whole, or half the pommado’. Marston has _pommado reverso_, said to mean the vaulting _off_ the horse again. If so, ‘the whole pommado’ may refer to both actions, and ‘the half pommado’ to one of them. F. _pommade_, ‘the pommada, a trick in vaulting’ (Cotgr.).

=pompillion,= an ointment made of the buds of the black poplar; ‘_Populeon_, Popilion or Pompillion’, Cotgrave. OF. _populeon_ (Godefroy, Compl.). See NED.

=pompillion,= a term applied in contempt to a man. Fletcher, Women Pleased, iii. 4 (Bartello). Not found elsewhere. See below.

=pompion,= a pumpkin. Tusser, Husbandry, § 41; B. Jonson, Time Vindicated (Fame); ‘_Pompon_, a pumpion or melon’, Cotgrave. A Lanc. word for a pumpkin, see EDD. (s.v. Pumpion). Du. _pompoen_, ‘a pompion, pumpkin’ (Sewel).

=pon,= a pan, hollow, basin. Drayton, Pol. xxviii. 169. The pronunc. of ‘pan’ in the north-west of England (EDD.).

=ponder,= weight. Heywood, Silver Age, A. ii (Alcmena); vol. iii, p. 102; a heavy blow, id. (Hercules), p. 142.

=pontifical,= bridge-making. Milton, P. L. x. 313. L. _pons_ (bridge) + _facere_ (to make). It may be noted that L. _pontifex_ (a pontiff) has probably nothing to do with bridge-making. See NED.

=pooke;= see =pouke.=

=poop-noddie, pup-noddie,= cony-catching, the art of befooling the simpleton; ‘I saw them close together at Poop-noddie, in her closet’, Wily Beguiled, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ix. 242; see NED.

=poor-john,= a coarse fish (usually hake), salted and dried. Temp. ii. 2. 28; Beaumont and Fl., Lover’s Progress, i. 1. 15. See EDD. (s.v. Poor).

=pooter,= the same as =poting-stick,= q.v. Warner, Alb. England, bk. ix, ch. 47, st. 8.

=pope-holy,= sanctimonious, hypocritical. Foxe, Martyrs (ed. 2, 205 b, 2); _pop-holy_, Skelton, Replycacion, 247; Garland of Laurell, 612. ME. _pope-holy_ (P. Plowman, B. xiii. 284). In Chaucer, Rom. Rose, 415, _Pope-Holy_ is used in the sense of ‘Hypocrisy’, being the translation of the _papelardie_ of the French original.

=popering,= a kind of pear, brought from Poperinghe in W. Flanders. Heywood, Wise Woman of Hogsdon, iii. 2 (Y. Chartley); _a poprin pear_, Romeo, ii. 1. 38.

=popler,= porridge (Cant). Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Song); _Poppelars_, porrage, Harman, Caveat, p. 83; _popplar of yarum_, mylke porrage, id., p. 86; _poplars of yarrum_, Brome, Jovial Crew, ii. 1 (Song).

=popping,= chattering; said of one whose talk is mere popping sound; foolish; ‘A poppynge fole’, Skelton, Magnyfycence, 234; ‘Pratynge poppynge dawes’, id., Replycacion, 39.

=popular,= populous; ‘How doth the popular City sit solitary!’, Jackson, True Evang., T. iii. 184; ‘The most popular part of Scotland’, Kirkton, Church History, 215 (EDD.). See NED., and Davies, Suppl. Gl.

=porcpisce,= a ‘porpoise’. Dryden, All for Love, iv. 1 (Ventidius); _porpice_, Drayton, Polyolb. v. 235. See Dict.

=porpentine,= a porcupine. Hamlet, i. 5. 20; 2 Hen. VI, iii. 1. 363; used by Shaks. seven times, in four of these as the sign of an inn; Ascham, Toxophilus (Arber, 31). See NED.

=porret, poret,= a young leek or onion. Tusser, Husbandry, § 39. 31; ‘_Porret_, yong lekes’, Palsgrave. F. _porrette_, ‘maiden leek, bladed leek, unset leek’ (Cotgr.). Norm. F. _poret_, see Moisy (s.v. Porrette).

=port,= to carry. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, i. 1 (Compass); ‘Ported spears’, Milton, P. L. iv. 980.

=port,= deferential attendance. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, i. 517; state, splendid manner of living, Merch. of Ven. i. 1. 124.

=port,= the gate of a city. Coriolanus, i. 7. 1; v. 6. 6; Great Bible of 1539, Ps. ix. 14 (Prayer-book); Beaumont and Fl., Maid in the Mill, i. 1. 2; Massinger, Virgin Martyr, i. 1 (Sapritius). F. _porte_, a gate.

=portague,= a Portuguese gold coin, worth varying according to time between £3 5_s._ and £4 10_s._ B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 3. Spelt _portigue_, Fletcher, Rule a Wife, v. 5. 5; _portegue_, Phillips, Dict., 1658; pl. _portagues_, Strype, Eccl. Mem. (ed. 1721, i. 18. 138); also, _porteguez_, Davenant, News fr. Plymouth (NED.). The _s_ (_z_) of Span. _Portugues_, Pg. _Portuguez_, ‘Portuguese’, was taken as a plural, hence the English forms _portegue_, &c.

=portance,= carriage, bearing, deportment. Coriolanus, ii. 3. 232; Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 5; ii. 3. 21.

=portcannons,= ornamental rolls or ‘canions’ round the legs of breeches; see =canion.= Butler, Hud. i. 3. 926.

=portcullis,= an Elizabethan coin, stamped with a portcullis. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, iii. 1 (Shift).

=porter’s lodge,= the place where great men used to exercise summary punishment upon their servants; ‘To the porter’s lodge with him!’, Fletcher, Maid in the Mill, v. 2 (Don Philippo); Massinger, Duke of Milan, iii. 2 (Graccho).

=portesse,= a portable breviary which can be taken out of doors. BIBLE, Translators’ Preface, 9; Stubbes, Anat. Abuses (ed. 1882, 77). ME. _portos_ (Chaucer, C. T. B. 1321); _portos_, ‘portiforium’ (Prompt. EETS. 342, see note, no. 1662). OF. _portehors_ (Godefroy), Church L. _portiforium_ (Ducange). See Dict.

=portmantua,= a ‘portmanteau’. Middleton, A Mad World, ii. 2 (Mawworm).

=port-sale,= public sale to the highest bidder; ‘The soldiers making portsale of their service to him that would give most’, North, tr. of Plutarch, M. Brutus, § 18 (in Shaks. Plut., p. 124); ‘Persons were sold out-right in port-sale under the guirland’ (_sub corona veniere)_, Holland, Livy, xli. 1103; see NED. (s.v. Port, sb.^{2}).

=possede,= to possess. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. iii, c. 3, § 2.

=possess,= to put one in possession of a fact. Meas. for M. iv. 1. 44; Merch. of Ven. i. 3. 65; King John, iv. 2. 41.

=post,= as set up before the door of a sheriff or magistrate. Posts were used to fix proclamations on; and were sometimes painted anew when a new magistrate came into office; ‘A sheriff’s post’, Twelfth Nt. i. 5. 157; ‘Worship, . . . for so much the posts at his door should signifie’, Puritan Widow, iii. 4. 12.

=post,= a messenger, Merch. Ven. ii. 9. 100; v. 1. 46. Also, a post-horse, 2 Hen. IV, iv. 3. 40. Hence, _to post_, to go with speed, hasten, Richard II, i. 1. 56; iii. 4. 90; v. 5. 59; ‘Thousands . . . post o’er land and ocean without rest’, Milton, Sonnet xix; _post over_, to hurry over, treat with negligence, 2 Hen. VI, iii. 1. 255.

=post and pair,= a card-game, played with three cards each, wherein much depended on _vying_, or betting on the goodness of the cards in your own hand. The best hand was three aces; then three kings, queens, &c. If there were no threes, the highest pairs won; or the highest game in the three cards. B. Jonson, Love Restored (Plutus); ‘The thrifty and right worshipful game of Post and Pair’, id., Masque of Christmas (Offering). See Nares.

=postil,= an explanatory note or comment on a word or passage in the Bible. Earle, Microcosmographie, § 2 (ed. Arber, 23); _postill_, to annotate, Bacon, Henry VIII (ed. Lumby, 193). ME. _postille_ (Wyclif, Prol. 1 Cor.); see NED. Mod. L. _postilla_, a gloss on the Bible (Ducange).

=post-knight,= a knight of the post, a notorious perjurer. A Knack to know a Knave, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 538. See =knight of the post.=

=posy,= a short motto, orig. a line or verse of ‘poesy’, inscribed within a ring, on a knife, &c. Hamlet, iii. 2. 162; Middleton, Widow, i. 1 (Francisco); a bunch of flowers, Marlowe, Passionate Sheph. iii. See Dict.

=pot.= In the expressions _to the pot_, or _to go to pot_, or _to go to the pot_, the reference is to the cooking-pot; ‘Your poor sparrows . . . go to the pot for’t’, Webster, White Devil (ed. Dyce, p. 37); _to the pot_, to destruction, Coriolanus, i. 4. 47; Peele, Edw. I (ed. Dyce, p. 389).

=potargo,= ‘botargo’, cake made of the roe of the sea-mullet. Fletcher, Sea-Voyage, iv. 3 (Master). Prov. _poutargo_, ‘caviar’ (Mistral, Calendal). See Dict. (s.v. Botargo); also Stanford.

=potch,= to poach an egg. B. Jonson, Staple of News, iii. 1 (P. jun.).

=potch,= to thrust. Coriolanus, i. 10. 15. Still in use in Warw. in this sense. See EDD. (s.v. Poach.)

=potestate,= chief magistrate. Morte Arthur, bk. v, c. 8; p. 174, l. 30; pl., Gascoigne, Supposes, iii. 3 (Damon).

=pot-gun,= used contemptuously for a small fire-arm; ‘How! fright me with your pot-gun?’, Beaumont and Fl., Knight of Malta, iv. 4 (Norandine).

=poting-stick,= a piece of wood, bone, or iron, for adjusting the pleats of a ruff. Marston, Malcontent, v. 3 (Maquerelle); Yorkshire Tragedy, i. 74. OE. _potian_, to push, thrust.

=potshare,= a potsherd. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 1. 37. In use in Lonsdale, Lancashire, see EDD. (s.v. Pot, 17 (65)).

=pottle,= half a gallon, or two quarts. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, ii. 1 (Roger); _a pottell oyle_ (i.e. of oil); Naval Accounts of Henry VII, p. 16. ‘Pottle’ (a measure of two quarts) is still in use in Cheshire (EDD.).

=pouke, pooke,= a ‘puck’, demon, goblin; ‘Chymæra, that same pooke’, Golding, Metam. vi. 646; ‘Nor let the Pouke nor other evill sprights . . . Fray us’, Spenser, Epithalamion, 341. ‘Pouk’ (‘pook’), a mischievous fiend, still in use in Sussex and Shropshire, see EDD. (s.v. Puck, sb.^{1}). ME. _pouke_: ‘I wene that knyght was a pouke’ (Coer de Leon, 566); OE. _pūca_ (Napier’s OE. Glosses, 23. 2).

=pouke-bug,= for =puck-bug,= a malicious spectre. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, iii. 594. See =bug.=

=pould,= bald-headed, or with lost hair. Two Noble Kinsmen, v. 1. 91.

=pouldre,= to beat into powder or dust. Spenser, F. Q. i. 7. 12; to spot, id., iii. 2. 25. OF. _pouldre_ (F. _poudre_).

=pouldron, poldron,= a shoulder-plate; a piece of armour covering the shoulder. Warner, Alb. England, bk. xii, c. 70, st. 13; Drayton, David and Goliath. OF. espauleron, a shoulder-plate; _espaule_ (F. _épaule_), shoulder. See NED.

=poulter,= a dealer in poultry. Webster, White Devil (Flamineo), ed. Dyce, p. 19; 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. From _poult_, a chicken.

=poulter’s measure,= poulterer’s measure; a fanciful name for a metre consisting of lines of 12 and 14 syllables alternately, common in Surrey and Gascoigne. See Gascoigne’s Steel Glas (ed. Arber, 39).

=poult-foot, powlt-foot,= a club-foot, Lyly, Euphues (Arber, 97); B. Jonson, Poetaster, iv. 7. See NED. (s.v. Polt-foot).

=Poultry,= the Counter prison in the Poultry, London. Middleton, Phœnix, iv. 3 (1 Officer); ‘Some four houses west from this parish church of St. Mildred is a prison-house pertaining to one of the sheriffs of London, and is called the Compter in the Poultrie’, Stow’s Survey (ed. Thoms, p. 99).

=pounce,= to ornament (cloth, &c.) by punching small holes or figures; also, to cut the edges into points and scallops, to jag. ‘A . . . cote, garded and _pounced_’, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. ii, c. 3, § 1; Skelton, Bowge of Courte, 508. Cognate with Norm. F. _ponçon_, ‘poinçon, instrument de fer ou d’acier servant à percer’ (Moisy).

=pouncet-box,= 1 Hen. IV, i. 3. 38; a Shaks. term for a small box for perfumes, with a perforated lid. It may be for _pounced box_, from _pounce_, to perforate. See above.

=pouncing,= the action of powdering the face with a cosmetic, ‘Pouncings and paintings’, Beaumont and Fl., Wit without Money, iii. 1 (Valentine); Knight of Malta, ii. 1 (Norandine). See NED. (s.v. Pounce, vb.^{3} 3).

=pouned,= impounded, shut up (as horses) in a pound; ‘Married once, a man is . . . _poun’d_’, Massinger, Fatal Dowry, iv. 1 (Novall jun.). Cp. _pounded_; ‘fairly pounded’ (i.e. married), Colman, Jealous Wife, ii. 1 (Sir H. Beagle).

=powder,= to sprinkle with salt, to salt. 1 Hen. IV, v. 4. 112. Hence _Powder-beef_, salted beef, Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, ii. 3. 4. Also, to sweat in a hot tub, to cure disease; Meas. for M. iii. 2. 62; _powdering-tub_, Hen. V, ii. 1. 79.

=practice,= scheming or planning, treachery. King Lear, ii. 4. 116; B. Jonson, Catiline, iii. 5 (Catulus). See Nares.

=practive,= practical, active, expert; ‘Most hardy practive knights’, Phaer, Aeneid viii, 518. See NED.

†=prage,= a spear or similar weapon; ‘Their blades they brandisht, and keene _prages_ goared in entrayls Of stags’, &c., Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 197. Is _prage_ a misreading of _prāge_ = _prange_ = _prong_ (see NED.)?

=praise,= to appraise, value. Puritan Widow, ii. 2. 14. In prov. use in Somerset, see EDD. (s.v. Prize, v.^{2} 1).

=prancome,= a prank, trick. Gammer Gurton’s Needle, i. 2 (Hodge). Not found elsewhere.

=prank,= showily dressed; ‘Pretie pranck parnel’, Appius and Virginia, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 120. See Dict. (s.v. Prank, 1).

=prankie-cote,= pranky coat; a jocose term for a fellow full of pranks. Udall, Roister Doister, iii. 3. 117. Not found elsewhere.

=prats,= buttocks (Cant); ‘_Prat_, a buttocke’, Harman, Caveat, p. 82; ‘Set me down here on both my prats’, Brome, Jovial Crew, ii. 1 (Mort).

=prease,= to press. Spenser, F. Q. i. 12. 19; to throng, F. Q. ii. 7. 44; a press, crowd, throng, F. Q. ii. 10. 25; Chapman, tr. of Iliad, i. 226. Gk. ὄχλος in Luke viii. 19 is rendered by _prease_ in Tyndale and in Cranmer’s Bible, also in the Geneva and AV. versions. See Nares. This is still the pronunc. of ‘press’ in Lanc. (EDD.).

=precisian,= one who is very punctilious, Merry Wives, ii. 1. 5; synonymous with ‘Puritan’, ‘He’s no precisian, that I’m certain of, Nor rigid Roman Catholic’, 13. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iii. 3. 102; Massinger, New Way to Pay, i. 1. 6. See Nares.

=pree,= short for _pree thee_, _prithee_, i.e. I pray thee. Marston, What you Will, iii. 2 (Holofernes).

=pregnant,= pressing, compelling, cogent, convincing; hence, clear, obvious. Meas. for M. ii. 1. 23; Othello, ii. 1. 241. OF. _preignant_, pressing, pp. of _preindre_, L. _premere_, to press; cp. _preignantes raisons_ (Godefroy, Compl.).

=pregnant,= receptive, fertile, imaginative. Twelfth Nt. iii. 1. 101; ready, ‘The pregnant Hinges of the knee’, Hamlet, iii. 2. 66; phr. _a pregnant wit_, Heywood, Maidenhead Lost, i. F. _prégnant_ (Rabelais), L. _praegnans_.

=prepense,= to consider beforehand, to premeditate. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 25, § 2; Spenser, F. Q. iii. 11. 14. See =purpense.=

=presence:= phr. _in presence_, present; often, in reference to ceremonial attendance upon a person of superior, esp. royal, rank, Barclay, Cyt. and Uplondyshman (Percy Soc. 13); Richard II, iv. 1. 62; a place prepared for ceremonial presence or attendance, a presence-chamber, ‘The two great Cardinals Wait in the presence’, Hen. VIII, iii. 1. 17; _chamber of presence_, Bacon, Essay 45. Evelyn, Diary, Dec. 5, 1643.

=presently,= immediately. Temp. iv. 42; v. 101; Two Gent. ii. 1. 30; ii. 4. 86; BIBLE, 1 Sam. ii. 16; Matt. xxvi. 53. See Bible Word-Book. Cp. F. ‘_presentement_, presently, quickly, anon, at an instant, speedily, suddenly’ (Cotgr.).

=president,= a precedent. Bacon, Essay, Of Great Place; Of Innovations; Of Judicature.

=press,= press-money, i.e. prest-money, as paid to an impressed soldier. Beaumont and Fl., Faithful Friends, i. 2 (Marcellius).

=prest,= ready. Merch. Ven. i. 1. 160; Marl., 2 Tamburlaine, i. 1 (Orcanes); Dido, iii. 2. 22. An E. Anglian word (EDD.). ME. _prest_ (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. iii. 917). F. ‘_prest_, prest, ready, full-dight; prompt; quick’ (Cotgr.); now written _prêt_.

=Prester John,= the name given in the Middle Ages to an alleged Christian priest and king originally supposed to reign in the extreme East, beyond Persia and Armenia; but from the 15th cent. generally identified with the King of Ethiopia or Abyssinia (NED.). ‘I will fetch you a tooth-picker now from the farthest inch of Asia; bring you the length of Prester John’s foot’, Much Ado, ii. 1. 276; Dekker, Old Fortunatus, ii. 1 (near end); ‘The great Christian of Æthiopia, vulgarly called Prester, Precious or Priest-John’, Sir T. Herbert, Travels, 130. For the history of the subject see Col. Yule’s article in Encycl. Brit. xix. 715. See Stanford.

=prestigiatory,= relating to ‘prestigiation’, juggling, deceptive, delusive; ‘The art prestigiatory’, Tomkis, Albumazar, i. 7; ii. 3.

=prestigious,= practising juggling or legerdemain, deceptive, illusory; ‘That inchantresse . . . by prestigious trickes in sorcerie’, Dekker, Whore of Babylon (Wks. 173, ii. 195); ‘Prestigious guiles’, Heywood, Dial. 18 (Minerva), vi. 250. Late L. _praestigiosus_, full of deceitful tricks; _praestigium_, an illusion, _praestigiae_, juggler’s tricks; cp. F. _prestiges_, ‘deceits, impostures, juggling tricks’ (Cotgr.). See Dict. (s.v. Prestige).

=pretence, pretense,= an assertion of a right; a claim; ‘Spirits that in our just pretenses arm’d Fell with us’, Milton, P. L. ii. 825; an expressed aim, intention, purpose or design, Two Gent. iii. 1. 47; Winter’s Tale, iii. 2. 18.

=pretenced, pretensed,= intended, purposed, designed. More’s Utopia (ed. Lumby, 8). Late L. _praetensus_, for _praetentus_, pp. of _praetendere_.

=pretend,= to stretch something over a person for defence; ‘Who . . . his target alwayes over her pretended’, Spenser, F. Q. vi. 11. 19; to put forward, set forth, ‘To that wench I pretend honest love’, Middleton, Changeling, iv. 2. 91. L. _praetendere_, to stretch forth.

=pretor,= one holding high civil office, a name for the Lord Mayor of London. Westward Ho, i. 1 (Justiniano); Webster, Monuments of Honour, § 1. Med. L. _praetor_, ‘urbis praefectus’ (Ducange); ‘Meyr, _maior_, _pretor_’ (Prompt. EETS. 284); cp. Cath. Angl. 225.

=prevent,= to anticipate. Merch. Ven. i. 1. 61; Twelfth Nt. iii. 1. 94; BIBLE, Ps. xviii. 5; cxix. 148; 1 Thess. iv. 15, &c. See Bible Word-Book.

=preving, preeving,= proving, trial. Spenser, Mother Hubberd, 1366. See =prieve.=

=prick,= to spur; hence, to ride. Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 1; _prickant_, riding along, Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of the B. Pestle, ii. 2 (Ralph).

=prick,= the pin, or peg originally fixed in the very centre of the _white_, or circular mark upon the butt shot at by archers. Also called the _pin_, or _clout_. Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 99; _at the prickes_, beside the butts, id., p. 98.

=prick,= the highest point, apex, acme; ‘To pricke of highest praise’, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 12. 1; ‘The hygh prycke of vertue’, Udall, Erasmus, Paraph. Matt. iii. 30; phr. _prick and praise_, very high praise, Middleton, Family of Love, ii. 4 (Mrs. G.); ‘She had the prick and praise for a prettie wench’, London Prodigal, iv. 1. 15.

=prick-eared,= having sharply pointed, erect ears; _prycke-eared_, Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 77; Hen. V, ii. 1. 44.

=pricket,= a buck in his second year, having straight unbranched horns. L. L. L. iv. 2. 12; Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of the B. Pestle, iv. 5 (Ralph). ME. _pryket_, ‘capriolus’ (Prompt. EETS. 316; see notes, no. 1681).

=prickle,= a wicker basket, for fruit or flowers. B. Jonson, Pan’s Anniversary (Shepherd, l. 3). In Kent used for a basket of a certain measure (EDD.). See NED.

=prick-me-dainty,= finical in language and behaviour. Udall, Roister Doister, ii. 3 (Trupeny). Still in use in Scotland (EDD.).

=prick-song,= music written down or sung from notes. Romeo, ii. 4. 21; Ascham, Toxophilus, p. 41. ‘The nightingale’s song, being more regularly musical than any other, was called _pricksong_’ (Nares). ‘Prick-song’ used to mean counterpoint as distinguished from ‘plain-song’, mere melody.

=priefe, preife,= proof, trial. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 1. 48; Mother Hubberd, 408. _Priefe_ = F. _preuve_, as _people_ (pron. _peeple_) = F. _peuple_.

=prieve,= to prove. Spenser, F. Q. v. 4. 33; vi. 12. 18. _Prieve_ = OF. _prueve_ (_preuve_); L. _próbat_, with the stress on the stem-syllable, whereas _prove_ = F. _prouver_ (OF. _prover_) = L. _probáre_.

=prig a prancer,= to steal a horse (Cant). Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, v. 2 (Higgen); Audeley, Vagabonds, p. 4; Harman, Caveat, pp. 42, 43, 84. See Dict. (s.v. Prig, 1).

=prima-vista,= an old game at cards, resembling primero, and sometimes identified with it. _Primviste_, Earle, Microcosmographie, § 13 (ed. Arber, p. 33); ‘_Prima_ . . . a game at cardes, called Prime, Primero, or Primavista’ (Florio). Ital. _prima vista_, ‘first seen, because he that can first show such an order of cards wins the game’ (Minsheu).

=primum mobile,= the ‘First Movement’, in the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, the outer sphere (of a system of spheres), which turns round from east to west once in 24 hours, carrying all the inner spheres with it. Bacon, Essay 15, § 4; Essay 51 (end). In Dante the Primum Mobile is called the Crystalline Heaven (‘Cielo Cristallino’), see Paget Toynbee’s Dante Dictionary.

=princox,= a pert saucy boy or youth, a conceited young fellow, Romeo, i. 588. A north-country word, see EDD. (s.v. Princock).

=prink,= to set off, show off, trim; ‘To prink and prank, _exorno_’, Coles, 1699. _Prinke it_, to show off, Gascoigne, Complaint of Philomene, st. 21, p. 93.

=print:= phr. _in print_, to the letter, exactly. L. L. L. iii. 173; ‘Gallant in print’ (i.e. a complete gallant), B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, ii. 2 (Fallace). In prov. use in E. Anglia, Oxf., Sussex, see EDD. (s.v. Print, 3).

=prise, pryse,= the note blown at the death of a hunted beast; ‘Thenne kynge Arthur blewe the pryse’, Morte Arthur, leaf 63. 25; bk. iv, c. 6. F. ‘_prise_, the death or fall of a hunted beast’ (Cotgr.).

=privado,= a favourite, intimate friend. Bacon, Essay 27, § 3. Span. _privado_, a favourite (Stevens); Port. _privado_, ‘favori, homme en faveur auprès d’un prince’ (Roquette). Med. L. _privatus_, ‘familiaris, amicus’ (Ducange).

=private,= private interest. B. Jonson, Catiline, iii. 2 (last speech).

=prize,= a contest, a match, a public athletic contest. Merch. Ven. iii. 2. 142; a fencing contest, Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, ii. 2 (Prentices); a turn in a match, ib., v. 2 (Infelice); phr. _to play a prize_, to engage in a public contest, to play one’s part, Beaumont and Fl., Hum. Lieutenant, v. 2 (Lieutenant); Massinger, New Way to Pay, iv. 2 (end); Titus Andron. i. 1. 399; B. Jonson, Volpone, v. 1. Hence _Prizer_, one who fights in a ‘prize’ or match, As You Like It, ii. 3. 8. F. ‘_prise_, a hold in wrestling; _estre aux prises_, to wrestle or strive with one another’ (Cotgr.).

=prize,= to offer as the price; to risk, stake venture. Greene, Friar Bacon, iv. 3 (1784); scene 13. 41 (W.); p. 175, col. 1 (D.); to pay a price for, Spenser, F. Q. iv. 11. 5.

=proake,= to ask. Mirror for Mag., Claudius T. Nero, st. 4; ‘To proke, _procare_’, Levins, Manip.

=proceed,= to advance, in one’s University course, from graduation as B.A. to some higher degree; ‘He proceaded Bachelour of Divinitye in the sayde Universitye of Cambridge’, Foxe, Bk. of Martyrs, 1297; Middleton, A Chaste Maid, iv. 1 (Tim).

=prochinge,= approaching. Sackville, Induction, line 1. Cp. Sc. _prochy-madame_ (_Prush-madam!_), a call to cows, Ramsey, Remin. = F. _approchez, Madame!_, see EDD. (s.v. Proochy).

=procinct,= readiness, preparation; ‘Procinct of war’, Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xii. 89. L. _procintus_, readiness for action.

=prodigious,= portentous, horrible. Mids. Night’s D. v. 419; King John, iii. 1. 46.

=proface,= much good may it do you. 2 Hen. IV, v. 3. 30; Chapman, Widow’s Tears, iv. 2 (Lysander). OF. _prouface_, ‘souhait qui veut dire, bien vous fasse’ (Roquefort); _prou_, advantage + _fasse_ (L. _faciat_), may it do. See Nares.

=profligate,= routed. Butler, Hud. i. 3. 728. L. _profligare_, to strike down, overthrow.

=profound,= to fathom, to get to the bottom of. Sir T. Browne, Rel. Med., pt. 1, § 13.

=prog,= to search about, esp. for food; ‘Man digs . . . He never rests . . . He mines and progs, though in the fangs of death’, Quarles, Job xiv. 60; ‘Each in his way doth incessantly prog for joy’, Barrow, Sermon, Rejoice evermore; ‘We need not cark or prog’, id. In prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Prog, vb. 2).

=progress,= the travel of the sovereign and court to visit different parts of his dominions. Webster, White Devil (Flamineo), ed. Dyce, p. 9; Massinger, Guardian, i. 1 (Durazzo). _Progress-block_, a block for a new fashion of hats, to be used on a progress, Beaumont and Fl., Wit at several Weapons, iv. 1.

=proin, proyne= (of a bird), to preen, prune, to trim or dress the feathers with the beak. B. Jonson, Underwood, Celebr. Charis, v; Gascoigne, Complaint of Philomene, st. 59, p. 98. Spelt _prune_, Spenser, F. Q. ii. 3. 36; Cymb. v. 4. 118; 1 Hen. IV, i. 1. 98. ME. _proynen_ (Chaucer, C. T. E. 2011). OF. _poroign-_, pres. pt. stem of _poroindre_, to trim feathers (Godefroy), L. _pro_ + _ungere_, to anoint.

=proine, proyne,= to prune trees. Gascoigne, Steel Glas, l. 458; Bacon, Essay 50; Drayton, Pol. iii. 358; Two Noble Kinsmen, iii. 6. 292; Homilies 1, Falling fr. God (NED.); Machin, Dumb Knight, iii. 1. Norm. F. _progner_ (Moisy), OF. _proignier_, to prune (Godefroy), Romanic type, _protundiare_, deriv. of L. _rotundus_, round. Cp. F. _rogner des branches, des racines_, ‘couper tout autour’ (Hatzfeld). See =royne.=

=project,= to set forth, exhibit. Ant. and Cl. v. 2. 121; to presage, ‘When the south projects a stormy day’, Dryden, tr. of Virgil, Georg. i. 622.

=projection,= the application of ‘the elixir’ to the metal which is to be transmuted into gold. B. Jonson, Alchem. ii. 1 (Mammon).

=proller,= a prowler, wandering beggar. Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, xi. 490.

=promont,= a headland. Middleton, The Changeling, i. 1 (Vermandero); Drayton, Pol. iv. 7. 1.

=promoter,= a professional accuser, a common informer; ‘Enter two promoters’, Middleton, A Chaste Girl, ii. 2; Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, v. 2 (1 Madman); Tusser, Husbandry, § 64. 11. See Cowell’s Interpreter.

=prompture,= prompting, instigation. Meas. for M. ii. 4. 178.

=prone,= a sermon delivered in commemoration of a founder or benefactor; ‘The founder . . . used to be commemorated in some Prone’, T. Hearne, Remains (ed. Bliss, 655); ‘All founders and benefactors were duly and constantly commemorated in their Prones’, id., 754. F. ‘_prone_, notice given by a Priest unto his Parishioners . . . of the holy days, of Banes of Matrimony, of such as desire to be relieved or prayed for, &c.’ (Cotgr.).

=proof,= proof-armour, strong defensive armour. Beaumont and Fl., Chances, i. 10 (Fred.). _Proof-arm_, to put on armour of proof, Hum. Lieutenant, ii. 3 (Leucippe).

=proper,= handsome, fine. Tam. Shrew, i. 2. 144; Much Ado, i. 3. 54; 1 Hen. VI, v. 3. 37; ‘He was a proper childe’, BIBLE, Heb. xi. 23 (= ‘elegantem infantem’, Vulgate). Very common in prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Proper, 5).

=proper,= belonging exclusively to one, peculiar to one, Meas. for M. i. 1. 30; v. 1. 111; Shirley, Arcadia, iii. 1 (3 Rebel).

=properties,= rude paintings for scenery, or stage appliances. Shirley, Bird in a Cage, iii. 2 (Carlo); dresses for the actors, id., iv. 2 (Donella).

=property,= an implement, tool for a purpose. Merry Wives, iii. 4. 10; Jul. Caesar, iv. 1. 40; to use as a tool, King John, v. 2. 72.

=propice,= propitious, favourable. Udall, tr. of Apoph., Augustus, § 31; _propise_, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 4. F. _propice_; L. _propitius_.

=propriety,= peculiarity, special nature. Bacon, Essay 3, § 2; property, Dryden, Marriage a la Mode, v. 1 (Rhodophil). F. ‘_proprieté_, a property speciality in; the nature, quality, inclination of’ (Cotgr.).

=prospective,= a magic glass or crystal in which it was supposed that distant or future events could be seen, Bacon, Essay 26; _glasse prospective_, Greene, Friar Bacon, v. 110. The word also means a telescope, J. Taylor (Water Poet), Fennor’s Defence (NED.). Also, a scene, a view, Porter, Angry Women, i. 1. 12. F. _prospective_, ‘the prospective or optick art; also, a bounded prospect, a limited view’ (Cotgr.).

=prostrate,= one who is prostrate as a suppliant or a vanquished foe, Otway, Don Carlos, i. 1.

=protense,= extension, a story long drawn out. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 3. 4. L. _protensus_, drawn out; pp. of _protendere_, to draw forth.

=protract,= delay, procrastination. Ferrex and Porrex, iv. 2 (Porrex).

=provand,= food, provisions. Coriolanus, ii. 1. 267; Caxton, Reynard (Arber, p. 60). Flemish, _provande_, Fr. _provende_, Romanic type _provenda_ for eccles. L. _praebenda_, a daily allowance (Dict. Christ. Antiq.).

=provant,= provender, food. Fletcher, Love’s Cure, ii. 1. Also, one who deals in provisions, a sutler. Beaumont and Fl., Four Plays in One, i. 1 (Nicodemus). Hence, _Provant_, of or belonging to the ‘provant’ or soldier’s allowance, and therefore, of common or inferior quality, Webster, Appius and Virg. i. 4; B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iii. 1 (Bobadil).

=provecte,= advanced; ‘Provecte in yeres’, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 4, § 3. L. _provectus_, pp.

=providence,= foresight, timely care. Massinger, New Way to Pay, iii. 2 (Overreach); Shirley, Hyde Park, iii. 1. 5.

=provincial garland,= a garland given to one who had added a _province_ to the Roman Empire. Ford, Broken Heart, i. 2 (Calanthia).

=prowest,= most valiant. Spenser, F. Q. i. 4. 41; ii. 8. 18. OF. _prou_, valiant (Bartsch). See Dict. (s.v. Prowess).

=prune,= the fruit. _Stewed prunes_, often referred to as being a favourite dish in brothels. Meas. for M. ii. 1. 93; 1 Hen. IV, iii. 3. 128; cp. Fletcher, Mad Lover, iv. 5 (Eumenes). Spelt _proin_, in _proin-stone_, Peele, Sir Clyomon (ed. Dyce, p. 500).

=prune;= see =proin.=

=pry, prie,= a local name of the small-leaved lime (_Tilia parvifolia_). Tusser, Husbandry, § 35. 15. An Essex word, see EDD. (sv. Pry, sb.^{1} 4).

=ptrow,= _interj._, tut! an exclamation of contempt. Heywood, Jupiter and Io, vol. vi, p. 267, l. 3.

=Pucelle.= _Joan la Pucelle_, Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orleans, 1 Hen. VI, i. 4. 101; i. 6. 3. F. _pucelle_, a maid, virgin.

=puckfist, puckfoist,= the fungus usually called a puff-ball. Beaumont and Fl., Custom of the Country, i. 2 (Rutilio); B. Jonson, Poetaster, iv. 5 (Tucca). Named after ‘Puck’. See =pouke.= A common prov. word (EDD.). The ‘puff-ball’ was also called Bull-fist, Puff-fist, and Wolf’s-fist, see Cotgrave (s.v. Vesse de loup); see NED. (s.v. Fist).

=puckle,= a kind of bugbear or goblin. Middleton, The Witch, i. 2 (Hecate). OE. _pūcel_, a goblin (NED.), dimin. of _pūca_; see =pouke.=

=puckling,= little goblin; used as a term of endearment by a witch. Heywood, Witches of Lancs. ii. 1 (Mawd.); vol. iv, p. 187. See above.

=pudder,= pother, confusion, turmoil. King Lear, iii. 2. 50 (1623); Ford, Fancies Chaste, iii. 3 (Romanello). A common prov. word (EDD.).

=pudding-time, in,= in good time, lit. in time for dinner, as dinner often began with pudding. Like will to Like, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iii. 219; Butler, Hud. i. 2. 865. Still in use; see EDD.

=pudding tobacco,= tobacco compressed into sausage-like rolls. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, ii. 1 (Mercury); Middleton, Roaring Girl, iii. 2 (Laxton).

=pudency,= modesty. Cymbeline, ii. 5. 11. L. _pudentia_, modesty.

=pug,= to pull, to tug; ‘What pugging by the ear!’, Appius and Virginia, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 120. In prov. use from Warw. to Dorset, see EDD. (s.v. Pug, vb.^{2}).

=pug,= a bargeman; ‘In a Westerne barge, when with a good winde and lustie pugges one may go ten miles in two daies’, Lyly, Endymion, iv. 2; _Westerne pugs_, men who navigated barges down the Thames to London; ‘The Westerne pugs receiving money there [in plague time] have tyed it in a bag at the end of their barge, and trailed it through the Thames’, Dekker, Wonderfull Yeare (NED.).

=puggard,= a thief (Cant). Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Moll).

=pugging tooth,= Winter’s Tale, iv. 3. 7. Meaning uncertain. Usually taken as = thieving, cp. =puggard.= In Devon ‘pug-tooth’ means eye-tooth (EDD.). Possibly there may be a play of words here: Autolycus’s hungry eye-tooth (_pug_-tooth) set on edge tempts him to thieve (_pug_) ‘the white sheet bleaching on the hedge’.

=puke,= a superior kind of woollen cloth, 1 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 78. M. Du. _puuc_, _puyck_, name of the best sort of woollen cloth (A.D. 1420). Du. _puyck_, woollen cloth (Hexham); _puik_, choice, excellent (Sewel).

=puke,= the name of the colour formerly used for the cloth named ‘puke’. ‘_Pauonaccio cupo_, a deep darke purple or puke colour’ (Florio, ed. 1598); ‘Pewke, a colour, _pers_’, Palsgrave. See NED.

=pull:= in phr. _to pull down a side_, ‘to cause the loss or hazard of the side or party with which a person plays’ (Nares); ‘If I hold your card, I shall pull down the side’, Massinger, Duke of Florence, iv. 2 (Cozimo); id., Unnatural Combat, ii. 1 (Belgarde).

=pullen,= poultry, chickens. Tusser, Husbandry, 87. 5; Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, v. 2 (Elder Loveless); _poleyn_, Fitzherbert, Husbandry, 146. 21. In common prov. use in the north country and in E. Anglia (EDD.). OF. _poulain_, young of any animal (Hatzfeld). Med. L. _pullanus_, see Ducange (s.v. Pullani).

=pulpamenta,= delicacies. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour, v. 7 (Macilente). A word used by Plautus for tit-bits, delicacies.

=pulpatoon,= a dish made of rabbits, fowls, &c., in a crust of forced meat. Nabbes, Microcosmus, iii. 1 (Tasting). Span. _pulpelón_, a large slice of stuffed meat.

=pulvilio,= fine scented powder, cosmetic powder. Etherege, Man of Mode, iii. 3 (Sir Fopling); _Pulvilio-box_, a scent-box, Wycherley, Plain Dealer, ii (Manly). Hence _pulvil_, to perfume with scented powder, Congreve, Way of the World, iv. 1 (beginning). Ital. _polviglio_, fine powder. See Stanford.

=pumey,= ‘pumice’. Peele, Anglorum Feriae, 26 (ed. Dyce, p. 595); _pumie-stone_, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 5. 39; Shep. Kal., March, 89.

=pun,= to pound, to beat, pummel. Tr. and Cr. ii. 1. 42; _pund_, pt. t., Heywood, King Edw. IV, First Part (Spicing); vol. i, p. 19. In common prov. use from the north country down to Glouc., see EDD. (s.v. Pound, vb.^{3}). OE. _punian_, to pound, beat, bray in mortar.

=puncheon,= a kind of dagger. Phaer, tr. of Aeneid, vii. 664 (L. _dolones_). O. Prov. _ponchon_, ‘poinçon’ (Levy).

=puncto;= see =punto.=

=punctual,= no bigger than a point, very small; ‘This opacous Earth, this punctual spot’, Milton, P. L. viii. 23.

=punese,= a bug. Butler, Hud. iii. 1. 437. F. _punaise_.

†=pung,= a ‘punk’, courtesan. Middleton, Mich. Term, iii. 1 (Lethe). Not found elsewhere.

=punkateero,= a purveyor of punks, a pander. Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable, iv. 1 (Curvetto). A jocose formation from _punk_, a strumpet, in imitation of Span. _mulatero_, muleteer, from _mulo_, mule. Not found elsewhere.

=punto,= a small point; _in a punto_, in a moment, B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iv. 7 (Bobadil); a nice point of behaviour, a ‘punctilio’, ‘Puntos and Complementes’, Bacon. Adv. L., bk. ii, c. 23, § 3; a stroke or thrust with the point of the sword or foil, Merry Wives, ii. 3. 26; _punto riverso_, a back-handed thrust, Romeo, ii. 4. 27; _punto beard_, a pointed beard, Shirley, Honoria, i. 2 (Alamode). Ital. and Span. _punto_, L. _punctum_, a point.

=purchase,= to acquire, obtain, gain. Tempest, iv. 1. 14; Richard II, i. 3. 282. Hence, _purchase_, acquired property, wealth, Webster, Duch. Malfi, iii. 1 (Antonio); spoil, booty, 1 Hen. IV, ii. 1. 101; Hen. V, iii. 2. 45; Spenser, F. Q. i. 3. 16; Marlowe, 1 Tamburlaine, ii. 5 (Theridamas). See Dict.

=purfle,= to embroider along an edge, to border, to ornament. Spenser, F. Q. i. 2. 13; ii. 3. 26; Milton, Comus, 995; ‘_Pourfiler_, to purfle, tinsell or overcast with gold thread’, Cotgrave.

=purfle,= the contour or outline of anything, the profile. Chapman, Byron’s Conspiracy, iii. 1 (Breton).

=puritan,= used ironically for a courtesan (Cant). Marston, What you Will, iii. 3 (Slip).

=purlieu,= ground near a forest, which having been made forest, was by perambulation (OF. _puralee_) separated from the same, see Manwood, Forest Laws, cap. 20; ‘In the purlieus of this forest’, As You Like It, iv. 3. 77. The form _purlieu_ (for an older _purley_) is probably due to popular etymology, i.e. to association with F. _pur lieu_, L. _purus locus_, a free open space; _purley_, Randolph, Muses’ Looking-glass, iv. 3 (Nimis); _purley-man_, one who has lands within the ‘purlieu’ (NED.); _Pourlie man_, Cowell’s Interpreter (s.v. Purlue). Anglo-F. _puralé_ (_-lée_), a going though, ‘perambulatio’ (Rough List, s.v. Purlieu). See NED.

=purpense,= to determine beforehand; ‘James Grame . . . wilfully assented and purpensed the murdre, &c.’, Act 12 Hen. VII, c. 7; ‘A purpensed malice’, Udall, Erasmus’s Paraph. Mark iii. 30. Anglo-F. _purpenser_: _agwait purpensé_, ‘insidiis praecogitatis’ (Laws of William I, § 1, 2); see Moisy. See =prepense.=

=purpose,= conversation, discourse. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 2. 45; ii. 6. 6; ii. 8. 56; Much Ado, iii. 1. 12; to converse, discourse, F. Q. ii. 12. 16. OF. _pourpos_ (_purpos_), a purpose (Godefroy), cp. F. _propos_, a purpose, design, also, speech, discourse (Cotgr.).

=purprise,= an enclosure, enclosed area. Bacon, Essay 56 (Judicature). Norm. F. _purprise_, _pourprise_, ‘pourpris, enceinte, enelos, demeure’ (Moisy); _porprise_ (Didot); _porprendre_, ‘investir, entourer’ (Didot). Med. L. _porprisa_, _porprisum_, ‘possessio vel locus sepibus, muris, ant vallis conclusus’; see Ducange (s.v. Porprendere).

=purse,= to steal purses. Beaumont and Fl., Scornful Lady, ii. 1 (Yo. Loveless).

=purse-net,= a net, the mouth of which could be drawn together by a string. Webster, Devil’s Law-case, iv. 2 (Ariosto); Appius, iv. 1 (Advocate).

=purveyance,= providence. Surrey, tr. of Aeneid, iv, l. 58; provision, equipment, Spenser, F. Q. i. 12. 13. ME. _purveyaunce_, providence, also, provision (Chaucer). See Dict. (s.v. Purvey).

=push,= a pustule, pimple; ‘Black poushes or boyles’, Sir T. Elyot, Castel of Helthe, bk. iii, c. 7; ‘Pimples or pushes’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Diogenes, § 6. Still in use in many parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Push, sb.^{3}).