One-Letter Words A Dictionary 8

P P P IN PRINT AND PROVERB 1. (phrase) William Oxberry (1784–1824) was called “the Five P’s” because he was a publisher, printer, poet, publican, and player. 2. (in literature) “After she left, I mused for a few sec - onds on what is called in the medical profession the ‘p’ phenomenon: the tendency of starched nurses’ uniforms to make it seem as if all nurses were boun - tifully blessed in the bosom and this shaped like the letter ‘p.’ ” —Luke Rhinehart, The Dice Man 3. (in literature) “I handed him two alphabet blocks and part of a half- eaten soda cracker. The howl - ing ceased at once. He put the cracker in his mouth and banged the letter P against the plastic padding under him.” —Sue Grafton, P Is for Peril 4. (in literature) As a gentle letter of the alphabet: “He remembers, as a child, poring over the word rape in newspaper reports, trying to puzzle out what exactly it meant, wondering what the letter p, usually so gentle, was doing in the middle of a word held in such horror that no one would utter it aloud.” —J. M. Coetzee, Disgrace 5. (in literature) As an antisocial letter of the alphabet: “However, the letter P is much less friendly [than O and X]. It tends to lurk around just a few letters, and avoids 15 of them.” —Simon Singh, The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quan - tum Cryptography 6. (in literature) As the character of the bear in A.A. Milne’s Winnie- the- Pooh stories: “ ‘It’s a Missage,’ he said to himself, ‘that’s what it is. And that letter is a “P,” and so is that, and so is that, and “P” means P 137 “Pooh,” so it’s a very important Missage to me, and I can’t read it.’ ” —The Complete Tales & Poems of Winnie- the- Pooh 7. (in literature) “P is a porter with a load on his back.” —Victor Hugo, quoted in ABZ by Mel Gooding 8. (in fi lm) Alphabet Pam is a short 2004 film by Eva Saks about a little girl who has a passion for the letter P. The film was created for the Sesame Street television program. 9. n. Behavior, as in the phrase “mind your p’s and q’s.” McQuade was too near his d t’s to be mindful of his p’s and q’s. —O. Henry, The Fifth Wheel 10. n. A written representation of the letter. There, cut in half, was a symbol—barely noticeable because of the faded ink. But with the light from Eugene’s desk lamp behind it, it stood out clear as day—the letter P with a lightning bolt running through it. —Marshall Younger, Mysteries in Odys - sey #1: Case of the Mysterious Message Half- way up the hill on a prominent lump of grey stone the size of a hayrick had been painted with a large, lop- sided letter P in scarlet paint, so that it was visible to any ship anchored in the lagoon. —Wilbur A. Smith, Blue Horizon 11. n. A device, such as a printer’s type, for reproduc- ing the letter. 12. n. Blind P: the editorial symbol for a paragraph, i.e., ¶ . MISCELLANEOUS 13. n. Any spoken sound represented by the letter. P 138 The sound vibration of the consonant P means “heart, centre, sunset.” —Joseph E. Rael, Tracks of Dancing Light: A Native American Approach to Understanding Your Name 14. n. The sixteenth letter of the alphabet. The letter P, that broad, provocative expanse between O and Q, is one of the most ambivalent of all the twenty- six, for in it one finds pleasure and pain, peace and pandemonium, prosperity and pov - erty. —James Thurber, “The Watchers of the Night” Another fortunate terminologist hit upon the word “psychical”—the p might be sounded or not, accord- ing to the taste and fancy of the pronouncer—and the fashionable children of a scientific age were thoroughly at ease. —George Gissing, The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft 15. n. The sixteenth in a series. 16. n. Something having the shape of a P. Someone from the back would lean forward and say, “You guys, I need a rest stop.” So then the driver would flash her lights and signal the other cars, and the entertainer would wave out the window and form her fingers into the shape of a P and every - body would get off at the next exit. —Samantha Bennett, Post- Gazette Thread the nylon through the left (inactive) ring, pulling the cord through with your left hand. Let the resulting loop hang freely. Notice that it drops naturally into the letter P. —New Skete Monks, The Art of Raising a Puppy 17. n. A Roman numeral for 400. 18. n. Something arbitrarily designated P (e.g., a per- son, place, or other thing). P 139 19. n. The sixteenth section in a piece of music. 20. n. A message- processing language. P is a simple configuration language designed for specification of message processing instructions at application proxies. P can be used to instruct an intermediary how to manipulate the application message being proxied. —Alex Rousskov, “P: Mes - sage Processing Language.” 21. n. P trap: a plumbing fixture with a P- shaped curl installed below a sink and acting as a water door to trap sewer gases. “Was it clogged?” “I dropped something down it,” she answered, digging around the P trap with her fi n- ger. —Karin Slaughter, Blindsighted SCIENTIFIC MATTERS 22. n. A vitamin found in citrus and rose hips. Vitamin P was first discovered in 1936 by Hungar- ian scientist Dr. Albert Szent- Gyorgyi, who found it within the white of the rind in citrus fruits . . . . The letter P, for permeability factor, was given to this group of nutrients because they improve the capillary linings’ permeability and integrity— that is, the passage of oxygen, carbon dioxide, and nutrients through the capillary walls. —Elson M. Haas, MD, Staying Healthy with Nutri- tion: The Complete Guide to Diet and Nutritional Medicine 23. n. (chemistry) The symbol for the element phos- phorous in the periodic table. 24. n. (logic) A symbol used to represent an arbitrary proposition. P 140 P, q, and r were used as propositional letters by Bertrand Russell in 1903 in The Principles of Math - ematics. —Jeff Miller, “Earliest Uses of Various Mathematical Symbols” P 141 Q Q . literature) “I handed him two alphabet blocks and part of a half- eaten soda cracker. The howl - ing ceased at once. He put the cracker in his mouth and banged. Processing Language.” 21. n. P trap: a plumbing fixture with a P- shaped curl installed below a sink and acting as a water door to trap sewer gases. “Was it clogged?”