P (continued 2)

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).

push, interj., pish! Massinger, The Old Law, ii. 1 (Simonides); Middleton, Mich. Term, ii. 3 (Shortyard). Very common in Middleton.

push-pin, a childish game noticed by Strutt, Sports, v. 4. 14. In L. L. L. iv. 3. 169; Herrick, Hesper., Love’s Play at Push-pin. Also called put-pin.

pussle, a maid, girl, drab. Stubbes, Anat. Abuses (ed. Furnivall, 78); ‘A puzell verie beautifull’, Holinshed (ed. 1587, iii. 545); Laneham’s Letter (ed. Furnivall, 23); ‘The Fayre Pusell’, W. de Worde, Treatyse of a Galaunt (see title of the play). F. pucelle, a maid.

put, a silly fellow, a ‘duffer’ (Cant). Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, i. 1 (Shamwell). See Slang Dict., 1874.

put case, suppose. Middleton, A Chaste Maid, ii. 1 (end).

put forth, to lend out (money). B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour ii. 1 (Puntarvolo). Cp. Temp. iii. 3. 48; Sonnet cxxxiv. 10.

put on, to put on a hat. This was the occasion of much empty compliment. Webster, Devil’s Law-case, ii. 1 (Ariosto). Putting off his hat, taking it off, 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 7.

put up, to sheathe a sword, to replace it in the scabbard. Temp. i. 2. 469; Twelfth Nt. iii. 4. 343; put up (without a following sb.), Middleton, The Widow, i. 2 (Martino).

puther, pother, trouble, disturbance. Buckingham, The Rehearsal, ii. 4 (Bayes); pudder, K. Lear, iii. 2. 50 (1623); poother, Coriolanus, ii. 1. 234.

put-pin, ‘Playing at put-pin’, Marston, Scourge of Villainy, Sat. viii. 205. See push-pin.

puttock, a bird of prey of the kite kind. 2 Hen. VI, iii. 2. 191; Cymb. i. 1. 140; Puritan Widow, iii. 3. 110; ‘Puttocke, escoufle’, Palsgrave. In common prov. use for a kite or buzzard, see EDD. (s.v. Puttock, sb.¹ 1 and 2). ME. puttocke, ‘milvus’ (Prompt. EETS. 339, see note, no. 1647). Puttock is a not uncommon surname, see Bardsley, 493. An older form for this surname was Putthawke, see Chronicles of Theberton (Suffolk), by H. M. Doughty, 1910, p. 177, ‘That year [1748] John Puttock or Putthawke was churchwarden.’ Can puttock, the name of the bird, stand for pout-hawk, from the pouts, i.e. small birds, on which it feeds? [For pout, see NED. (s.v. Poult).]

puzell; see pussle.

pylery hole, the hole through which the head of the offender was thrust in the pillory. Skelton, Magnyf. 361. OF. pillorie (Ducange, s.v. Pilorium), O. Prov. espilori, espitlori (Levy); Med. L. *spect’lorium < *spectaculorium, a place for a ‘spectacle’ (L. spectaculum).

pyonyng; see pion.

pyromancy, divination by fire. Greene, Friar Bacon, i. 2 (186); scene 2. 15 (W.); p. 155, col. 1 (D.). Gk. πυρομαντεία, divination by fire.

Pythonissa, the witch of Endor; ‘Saith the Pythonissa to Saul’, Bacon, Essay 35. L. pythonissa, applied to the witch of Endor (1 Sam. xxviii), see Vulgate, Lib. 1 Regum xxviii, Argument (‘Saul pythonissam consulit’); properly, a woman possessed with Python, the spirit of divination, cp. Vulgate, Lib. 1 Regum xxviii. 7 (‘Mulier pythonem habens in Endor’). See Phitonessa.