"P" Word Origins

pounce

Latin

From Old French ponce, from Latin pumex, "pumice" — pounce originally referred to the claw of a bird of prey, and later to the sudden striking motion itself.

pound

Latin

From Old English pund, from a Germanic borrowing of Latin pondo, "by weight" — the currency and the unit of weight share the same root.

pounder

Origin

Formed from pound + the agent suffix -er, meaning "one that pounds" or "one that weighs a certain number of pounds."

pour

Old French

Of uncertain origin, first recorded in Middle English as pouren — possibly related to an Old French word meaning "to sift" or "purify" liquid.

pout

Middle English

From Middle English pouten, probably borrowed from a Scandinavian word related to being "puffed out" or swollen.

pouter

Origin

From pout + -er.

pouting

Origin

From pout + -ing.

poverty

Latin

From Old French poverté, from Latin paupertas, from pauper, "poor" — the same root as "pauper" and "poor".

pow

Origin

An onomatopoeia — a word that imitates the sound it describes, like "bang" or "boom".

powder

Latin

From Old French poudre, from Latin pulvis, "dust" — a doublet of the word "pulverize".

powderize

Origin

From powder + -ize.

powdery

Origin

From powder + -y.

power

Vulgar Latin

From Old French poeir, from Vulgar Latin potere, related to Latin posse, "to be able" — the same root as "potent" and "possible".

powerful

Origin

Formed from power + the suffix -ful, meaning "full of".

powerhouse

Origin

A compound of power + house, originally referring literally to a building that generates electricity.

powerless

Origin

Formed from power + the suffix -less, meaning "without".

PowerPoint

Origin

From PowerPoint, the trademarked name of Microsoft's presentation software, which has become a generic term for any slideshow.

powersome

Origin

From power + -some.

powwow

Origin

From an Eastern Algonquian word, likely Narragansett powwaw, meaning "shaman" or "one who practices magic".

pox

Middle English

From the plural of Middle English pocke, "pock" — the curse sense comes from the old habit of literally wishing the disease on an enemy.

PPD

English

An initialism; each sense abbreviates a different phrase.

PPI

English

An initialism; each sense abbreviates a different phrase.

PPM

English

An initialism; each sense abbreviates a different phrase.

PPT

English

An abbreviation: from the PowerPoint file extension .ppt in the software sense, and an initialism of parts per trillion or percentage point in the technical senses.

PPTX

English

From ppt, the older extension for a Microsoft PowerPoint file, plus x for XML, the text-based system used to store the file's contents.

PPV

English

An initialism; each sense abbreviates a different phrase.

Prabha

Sanskrit

From Sanskrit प्रभा (prabhā, "light, radiance").

Prabhakar

Sanskrit

From Sanskrit प्रभाकर (prabhākara, "the light-maker, sun").

Prabhu

Sanskrit

From Sanskrit prabhu, meaning "lord, master, prince".

practic

Origin

From Middle English practic, practik, partly from Old French practique and partly from its etymon, Late Latin prācticus (“active”), from Ancient Greek πρακτικός (praktikós, “of or pertaining to action, concerned with action or business, active, practical”), from πράσσω (prássō, “to do”). Doublet of practico.

practicability

Origin

From practicable + -ability.

practicable

Origin

Borrowed from Latin prācticābilis, partly modelled on Middle French praticable. By surface analysis, practice (verb) + -able.

practical

Medieval Latin

From Medieval Latin practicalis, ultimately from Greek praktikos, "fit for action" — related to "practice".

practical joke

English

So called because the joke is carried out in practice — in deed rather than in speech — as opposed to a spoken joke.

practical joker

English

From practical joke, where practical means 'carried out in action' as opposed to merely spoken, plus the agent noun joker.

practicalness

Origin

From practical + -ness.

practice

Ancient Greek

From Middle French pratiser, ultimately from Ancient Greek praktikos, "practical" — the noun spelling with -ice became standard in British English, while American English also uses "practice" for the verb.

practise

Ancient Greek

From Middle French pratiser, ultimately from Ancient Greek praktikos, "practical" — the British verb spelling with -ise, kept distinct from the noun "practice".

practising

Origin

From practise + -ing (suffix forming gerund nouns, and present participles of verbs).

practitioner

French

From "practician," which came from French "practicien," ultimately from Greek "praktikos" ("fit for action") — the same root behind "practical" and "practice."

Pradesh

Sanskrit

From Hindi "pradesh," itself from Sanskrit "pradesha," meaning "region" or "province."

pradhan

Sanskrit

From Sanskrit "pradhana," meaning "chief" or "principal."

Prado

Portuguese

Borrowed from Portuguese and Spanish Prado.

Prager

German

Borrowed from German Prager.

pragma

Origin

From Ancient Greek πρᾶγμα (prâgma, “a thing done, a fact”). In the technical senses perhaps a back-formation from pragmatic or a clipping of pragmat used earlier in ALGOL.

pragmatic

Greek

From Greek "pragmatikos" ("skilled in business or affairs"), from "pragma" ("a deed" or "a thing done") — the same root as "practical."

pragmatical

Origin

From Late Latin pragmaticus + -al. By surface analysis, pragmatic + -al.

pragmatism

Origin

From Ancient Greek stem of πρᾶγμα (prâgma, “act”) + -ism.