"P" Word Origins

piddle

Origin

Unknown. Compare regional German piddlen, pitteln, pütteln, pühteln (“to pick at something, pick at one's food”), dialectal German Pitzel (“small effort, small task”). Alternatively, perhaps originally from paw or put + -le (suffix forming verbs involving continuous or repeated movement). In later use, a euphemistic diminutive of piss, though not directly related to it. The noun derives from the verb.

piddly

Origin

From piddling; see -y.

pidge

Origin · 2000

A clipped, informal form of "pigeon" or "pigeonhole" first seen in writing in the early 2000s.

pidgin

Origin

From pidgin English, from a Chinese Pidgin English pronunciation of English business during trade in the Far East. All attestations of pidgin from the first half of the nineteenth century given in the third edition of the Oxford English Dictionary mean “business; an action, occupation, or affair” (the earliest being from 1807). Other suggested derivations include: * Hebrew פִּדְיוֹן (pidyón, “exchange; trade; redemption”) * Chinese pronunciation of Portuguese ocupação (“occupation; business”) * South Seas pronunciation of beach * Portuguese baixo (“low”)

pie

Middle English

From Middle English pye, of uncertain origin — possibly linked to the magpie, since a savoury pie mixes several ingredients much like the bird was thought to collect miscellaneous items.

piebald

Origin

From pie (“magpie”) + bald (“having white patches or blazes”). Compare typologically Polish srokaty < sroka.

piece

Old French

From Old French piece, ultimately from a Gaulish Celtic word for a portion or share — related to modern Welsh peth ("thing").

piecemeal

Origin

From Middle English pecemele, from pece (“piece”) + mele (from Old English mǣlum (“at a time”), dative plural form of mǣl (“time, measure”), taking the place of Old English styċċemǣlum (“in pieces, bit by bit, piecemeal; to pieces, to bits; here and there, in different places; little by little, by degrees, gradually”); equivalent to piece + -meal.

piecen

Origin

From piece + -en.

pied

Origin

From an old word for "magpie", since the bird's black-and-white markings gave the word its meaning.

Piedmont

Italian

From Italian Piemonte, literally "foot of the mountain", also the name of a region in northern Italy.

pier

Latin

From Middle English pere, meaning a bridge pillar or breakwater, tracing back to a Latin word for stone.

pierce

Latin

From Old French percier, likely from a Latin root meaning "to thrust or bore through".

piercing

Origin

From "pierce" plus the "-ing" ending.

pierogi

Origin

Borrowed from Polish pierogi, the plural of pieróg (“dumpling”), which ultimately is derived from Proto-Slavic *pirъ (“party”). Relationship to Turkish börek is unclear. Doublet of pirogi (from Russian), pirohy (from Czech and Slovak), and pyrohy/pedaheh (from Ukrainian).

Pierre

French

From French Pierre, a doublet of Peter, ultimately from Greek petros, "rock".

Pierrot

French

French diminutive of Pierre ("Peter") with the suffix "-ot".

Piers

Latin

A Middle English vernacular form of Peter, via Old French Piers, from Latin Petrus.

Pierson

Origin

From Piers + -son.

Pies

Origin

A clipping of "Magpies".

piet

Old English

From "pie" (an old English name for the magpie) plus a diminutive ending, later respelled as "piet."

piety

Latin

From Latin pietas, meaning devotion or dutifulness — a doublet of "pity".

piff

Origin

Onomatopoeic

piffle

Origin

Unknown, 1847. Perhaps blend of piddle + trifle, perhaps puff (“(onomatopoeia, puff of air)”) + -le (“diminutive”).

pig

Old English · 1700

From Old English roots referring to a young swine; the slang sense meaning "police officer" has been recorded since at least the late 1700s.

Pigalle

French

Borrowed from French Pigalle.

pigeon

Latin

From Old French pyjon, ultimately from a Latin word meaning "chirping bird" — it gradually replaced the older native English word "dove" in most everyday uses.

pigeonhole

Origin

The noun is derived from pigeon + hole. The verb is derived from the noun.

piggy

Origin

From "pig" plus the diminutive ending "-y".

piggybac

Origin

piggyback + an abbreviated form of baculovirus (?)

piggyback

Origin

A reshaping of the older phrase "pick-a-back", itself likely from "pick pack", meaning to carry a pack on one's back.

pigheaded

Origin

From "pig" plus "headed", comparing stubbornness to the supposed obstinacy of a pig.

piglet

Origin · 1800

From "pig" plus the diminutive ending "-let", first recorded in the mid-1800s.

pigmeat

Origin

From pig + meat.

pigment

Latin

From Latin pigmentum, related to pingere ("to paint") — a doublet of "pimento" and "pimiento".

pigmentation

Latin

From pigment, from Latin pigmentum meaning 'colouring matter', from pingere 'to paint', plus the suffix -ation.

pigpen

Origin

A straightforward compound of "pig" and "pen".

pigskin

Origin

From "pig" plus "skin" — American footballs are nicknamed this way because early rugby balls were covered in leather, sometimes pigskin.

pigstick

Origin

From pig + stick.

pigsty

Origin

From "pig" plus "sty", an old word for a pen or enclosure.

pigswill

Origin

From pig + swill.

pika

French

Borrowed via French from a Siberian (Evenki) word for the animal, likely imitating its high-pitched call.

Pikachu

Japanese

From Japanese, blending pika (the sound of a spark or glitter) with chū (the sound a mouse makes).

pike

Old French

From Middle English pyke, going back to Old English and Old French words for a sharp point; the fish and the diving position both take their names from this same idea of something pointed.

pikelet

Origin

Derived from Welsh bara pyglyd (“pitchy [i.e. dark or sticky] bread”), later shortened simply to pyglyd. The early 17th century lexicographer, Randle Cotgrave, spoke of "our Welsh barrapycleds". The word spread to the West Midlands of England, where it was anglicised to picklets and then to pikelets.

piker

Origin

From pike + -er. In some senses, it has been linked etymologically to the word pikey as well as to Pike County in eastern Missouri https://web.archive.org/web/20051111194645/http://www.yourdictionary.com/ahd/p/p0300200.html. In the latter instance the term originally denoted poor immigrants to California.

Pil

Origin

Borrowed from Korean 필 (pil).

pilaf

Persian

Traced back through Turkish and Persian to a Sanskrit word for cooked rice, likely of Dravidian origin further back still.