| 释义 |
P
the sixteenth letter of the alphabet in English and other modern languages, was the fifteenth in the ancient Roman alphabet, corresponding in position and value to the Greek Pi, Π, Π, earlier {egpi1}, {egpi2}, originally written from right to left {egpi3}, and identical with the Phenician and general Semitic Pe, forms of which were 𐤐, {egpi3}. During its whole known history the letter has represented the same consonantal sound, viz. the labial tenuis, or lip unvoiced stop, to which the corresponding sonant or voiced stop is B, and the nasal, M. In English, the simple p has always this sound; but it is sometimes silent, as initially in the combinations pn-, ps-, pt- (representing Greek πν-, ψ-, πτ-), and medially between m and another consonant, as in Hampstead, Hampton, Sampson, Thompson, Dempster, Tompkins, where it is not etymological, but has the function of indicating for the preceding m the short and semi-sonant value which m naturally has before pronounced p: cf. Simpson, crimson |ˈsɪmsən, ˈkrɪmz(ə)n|, with wimple, wimble. In words from Latin, such as exempt, tempt, peremptory, assumpsit, consumptive, redemption, and some others, as Humpty-Dumpty, where the p is (so far as English is concerned) etymological or consciously derivational, there is generally in careful utterance an intention to pronounce it, resulting in an incomplete p, which we indicate thus |tɛm(p)t|, |riːˈdɛm(p)ʃən|; but, in rapid or careless utterance, the p disappears, just as in Ham(p)ton, Thom(p)son.
The digraph ph, ph, is used, in continuation of Latin usage, to transliterate the Greek letter ϕ, ϕ, the phonetic value of which is now identical with that of F. The words beginning with ph have thus the same relation to the P words proper that those in ch have to the C words; that is, they constitute an alien group, which, only for alphabetical convenience, occupy a place in the midst of the P words proper, between pe-, and pi-.
Original P in Germanic or Teutonic represents an Indo-European B. But, initially, B was of rare occurrence in Indo-European, and it is not certain that any of the words in which it so occurred were retained in Teutonic, where initial P was consequently very rare. Of the OE. words in P, a few were apparently Common West Germanic, a very few, Common Teutonic; of many of the remainder the origin is quite obscure, but the majority were manifestly adoptions within the historical period from other languages, chiefly from Latin. Notwithstanding these extraneous additions, P remained the smallest initial letter (the exotic K, Q, not being counted) in the Old English or Anglo-Saxon vocabulary, occupying less than half the space of I, and little more than two-thirds of that of Y. Its relation to the other mutes, C (= K) and T, and to its own sonant B, is seen by the pages which these occupy in Toller's edition of Bosworth's Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, which are C 50, T 64, B 78, P 8½ pages. P might be expected to comprise a correspondingly small part of the modern English vocabulary; on the contrary, it is actually the third largest initial, being surpassed only by S and C, with which it forms a triad of gigantic letters, which include nearly a third of all the words in the dictionary. This result is mainly owing to the vast accessions from Greek, Latin, and the modern Romanic languages (chiefly, of course, from French), and especially to the enormous number of words formed with the Latin prefixes per-, post-, pre-, pro-, and the Greek para-, peri-, pro-, along with the PH group already referred to. But, besides these, P has received great additions, not only in later times from Oriental, African, American, and other remote languages, but, during the Middle English and Modern periods alike, of a multitude of common, familiar, or lower-class words from sources which cannot be traced, often apparently from fresh word-formation. P thus presents probably a greater number of unsolved etymological problems than any other letter.
I.
1. The letter |piː|. Plural Ps, P's, p's |piːz|.
attrib. as p-language, a language which preserves original p, or substitutes it for other sounds, as Greek which has πεντέ against L. quinque, or Welsh which has pedwar against OIr. cether, from *qetwer, L. quatuor. Used spec. to designate one of the two main groups of languages which developed from Common Celtic, so called because its distinctive phonological features include the development of IE. *qu to p, as P-Celtic, P-division, P-group, etc.; P-Celt, a speaker of P-Celtic.
c1000[see B]. 1530Palsgr. 33 The sounding of this consonant P. P in all thynges followeth the generall rules..without any manner exception. Ibid. 21 Excepte ps whiche they sounde but s. sayeng for psálme, psaltére, salme, saltere. 15..Heywood (title) The playe called the foure P. A new and very mery enterlude of A Palmer. A Pardoner. A Poticary. A Pedler. 1573–80Baret Alv. s.v., This letter p seemeth both by his name and forme to be of kind to b, and as it were a b turned vpside downe. 1601Shakes. Twel. N. ii. v. 97 By my life this is my Ladies hand..thus makes shee her great P's. 1612Dekker If it be not good Wks. 1873 III. 329 Three Pees haue peppered me, The Punck, the Pot, and Pipe of smoake. 1863A. M. Bell Princ. Speech 161 With reference to the letter P, we observe, that it is not made by the conjunction of the lips, but by their separation; and this of course implies previous contact. 1891J. Rhys in Trans. Philol. Soc. 1891–4 104 (title) The Celts and the other Aryans of the P and Q groups. Ibid. 111 We are entitled to conclude that the Q Celts arrived in the west before the P Celts, as they are found occupying the furthest parts of the Celtic area... The conclusion is scarcely to be avoided that the later comers, the P Celts, came as invaders and conquerors. 1892Blackw. Mag. Mar. 409 The inability of Syrian lips to pronounce the letter P. 1892Johnston Place Names Scotl. 224 Windisch and Stokes' Classification of Celtic languages... The p group, Welsh, Pictish, Cornish, &c. 1900Contemp. Rev. Feb. 272 Greek may be called a p-language, Germanic a q-language. 1913J. M. Jones Welsh Gram. 1 Keltic: (a) the Q division, consisting of dialects in Gaul and Spain, and the Goidelic group, comprising Irish, Scotch Gaelic and Manx; (b) the P division, consisting of Gaulish, and the British group, comprising Welsh, Cornish and Breton. 1949Antiquity XXIII. 23 By birth-place and blood, Kieran was closely associated with the P-Celtic tribe of Corcu-Loigde. Ibid. 27 The Ulaid (the Ulstermen of the Saga), were once P-Celts, in O'Rahilly's view. 1953[see Brittonic a. and n.]. 1972W. B. Lockwood Panorama Indo-Europ. Lang. 74 The term Goidelic is chiefly used to denote Irish as distinct from British or, more technically speaking, to denote Q-Celtic as opposed to P-Celtic. 1977Word 1972 XXVIII. 133 One may wish to see Pictish interpreted as somewhat less different from Cumbric and the rest of insular p-Celtic than Jackson would argue.
2. Used, like the other letters, to indicate serial order, as in the ‘signatures’ of the sheets of a book, the Batteries of the Horse Artillery, etc.
3. P and Q.
a. to be P and Q (Pee and Kew).
According to Bound Provincialisms as quoted in Eng. Dial. Dict., this was used in 1876 in Shropsh. and Herefordsh. in the sense ‘to be of prime quality’.
1612Rowlands Knave of Harts (Hunterian Cl.) 20 Bring in a quart of Maligo, right true: And looke, you Rogue, that it be Pee and Kew.
b. to mind one's P's and Q's (peas and cues), to be careful or particular as to one's words or behaviour. So to be on (in) one's P's and Q's.
1779H. Cowley Who's the Dupe? i. i, You must mind your P's and Q's with him, I can tell you. 1800W. B. Rhodes Bomb. Fur. iv. 30 My sword I well can use So mind your P's and Q's. a1825Forby Voc. E. Anglia 266 ‘Mind your p's and q's’, q.d. ‘be nicely observant of your language and behaviour’. 1866G. Macdonald Ann. Q. Neighb. x. (1878) 181 Well, I thought it wasn't a time to mind ones peas and cues exactly. 1893W. S. Gilbert Utopia i, He minds his P's and Q's,—And keeps himself respectable.
a1814Apollo's Choice ii. ii. in Mod. Brit. Drama IV. 208, I must be on my P's and Q's here, or I shall get my neck into a halter. 1888C. Blatherwick Uncle Pierce i, He was rather on his p's and q's. 1893W. A. Shee My Contemp. vi. 149 In a well-dressed crowd you are in your p's and q's.
c. one's P's and Q's, put for ‘one's letters’.
1820Combe Consol. i. 30 And I full five-and-twenty year Have always been school-master here; And almost all you know and see, Have learn'd their Ps and Qs from me. [Note. As to the origin of these nothing has been ascertained. An obvious suggestion is that b. (for which the evidence does not go far back) refers to the difficulty which a child beginning to read has in distinguishing the tailed letters p and q; others have conjectured some cryptic reference to the words peculiar, or particular. There is no necessary connexion between b. and a., which belongs to an earlier date. In a still earlier passage from Dekker 1602, ‘Now thou art in thy pee and cue’, pee means the coat so called (see pee n.), and cue app. either queue, or cue n.2 sense 3 or 4; but there may have been a punning allusion to the expressions here considered, if they were then current.] 4. P.Z. exercise (R.N.), an exercise at sea.
1905Trans. Inst. Naval Archit. XLVII. ii. 305 The P.Z. exercises have been so conducted as to be deceiving. 1916‘Taffrail’ Pincher Martin viii. 140 Gunnery, gunnery, toujours gunnery—unless it was torpedo-running, steam tactics, or P.Z. Exercises—was carried on through⁓out the year. 1962Granville Dict. Sailors' Slang 85/2 PZ, tactical exercise in the Fleet at sea in peacetime when the Code flags PZ were run up at the start of the exercise.
II. Abbreviations.
a. P., various proper names, as Peter, Paul, etc.; P., p., past, post; P (chess) = pawn; P (Chem.) = Phosphorus; P (Mechanics) = pressure; P., ‘prompter side’ in a theatre; cf. P.S. below; p., page; p- (Chem.), para-; p, parental generation (see quot. 1902); p. (in a ship's log) = passing showers; p, p., pence, penny, in decimal currency (see new a. 4); p (Music) = piano, softly; Π (i.e. Greek pi) (Math.) continued product; π (Math.) = pi, the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle, the incommensurable quantity 3·14159265{ddd}; Pa, pascal; Pa. (U.S.), Pennsylvania; p.a., per annum (per prep. I. 2); P.A., personal assistant; P.A. [see quot. 1972], a canvas climbing boot with a rubber sole strengthened with a steel plate; P.A., political agent; P.A., Post Adjutant; P.A., power amplifier; P.A., press agent, Press Association, programme assistant; P.A., PA, p.a., public address; PAL, phase alternation line (name of a colour television system); P. and O., P. & O., Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co.; PAR, precision approach radar; P.A.S., PAS, para-aminosalicylic acid; PAYE, P.A.Y.E., pay as you earn; PAYV, pay-as-you-view; Pb (Chem.), plumbum, lead; P.B.I., Poor Bloody Infantry(man), so P.B. used with other ns.; P.B.S. (U.S.), Public Broadcasting Service; p.c., per cent; PC, personal computer; P.C., Police Constable; p.c., P.C., postcard; P.C., Privy Councillor; PC, propositional calculus (see propositional a. b); also attrib.; PCB, pcb, printed circuit board; (see also sense II. d below); PCM, pcm, pulse code modulation; PCP, phencyclidine; p.c.u., passenger car unit; P.D., p.d., potential difference; P.D., preventive detention (also, detainee); Pd (Chem.), Palladium; PDI, powered descent initiation (of a spacecraft); P.D.Q., p.d.q., pretty damn quick; P.E., physical education; P.E., p.e., plastic explosive; P.E.N., PEN, Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists, and Novelists; PEP (Radio), peak envelope power; PEP (also with pronunc. pɛp), personal equity plan, an investment scheme intended to extend share-ownership in the U.K., whereby investors may acquire shares (up to a given value) in U.K. companies without paying tax on dividends or capital gains; P.E.P., PEP, Political and Economic Planning; p/e ratio, price-earnings ratio; PERT (orig. U.S.), program(me) evaluation (and) review technique (orig., program(me) evaluation research task); (= network analysis b, esp. as used to deal with events of uncertain duration); P.E.S.C., Public Expenditure Survey Committee; p.f. (Mus.), pianoforte, [It. piano forte] soft then loud, [It. più forte] more loudly; p.f.a., P.F.A., pulverized fuel ash; PFC, p.f.c. (U.S.), Private 1st Class, poor foolish (forlorn, etc.) civilian; PG, parental guidance (orig. N. Amer., a cinema film classification); P.G., p.g., paying guest; hence p.g. v. intr., to reside as a paying guest; PGR, P.G.R. [ad. G. p.g.R. (O. Veraguth 1907, in Monatsschr. f. Psychiatrie und Neurol. XXI. 387)], psychogalvanic reflex, response; Ph.D. [L. Philosophiæ Doctor], Doctor of Philosophy, Doctorate of Philosophy; P.I. (U.S. slang), pimp; PI, p.i., private investigator; PIB, Prices and Incomes Board; PIDE [Pg. Polícia Internacional e de Defesa do Estado], International Police for the Defence of the State; PIN, with pronunc. |pɪn|, personal identification number (esp. one allocated by a bank, etc., to a customer for use with a cash card); p-j, P.J., pyjama; PK., Pk., psychokinesis, psychokinetic (see quot. 1943); P.K.I. [Indonesian Partai Komunis Indonésia], Indonesian Communist Party; PKU (Med.), phenylketonuria; P.L.A., People's Liberation Army; P.L.A., Port of London Authority; P.L.C., p.l.c., public limited company; P.L.M. [Fr. Paris–Lyon–Mediterranée], Paris–Lyons–Mediterranean (Railway); P.L.O., PLO, Palestine Liberation Organization; PL/I, PL/1 (Computing), ‘Programming Language One’, a versatile and powerful high-level language designed to replace both Fortran and Cobol in their respective fields; PLP, P.L.P., Parliamentary Labour Party; PLR, Public Lending Right (s.v. public a. 5 f); PLSS, personal life support system; P.M., particular (or peculiar, or proper) metre; P.M., p.m., post meridiem, afternoon; p.m., P.M., post mortem; P.M., Prime Minister; P.M.A. (Dentistry) (see quot. 1969); P.M.G., Postmaster General; P.M.S., pregnant mare's serum, or a gonadotrophic extract of it; PNdb, PNdB, perceived noise decibel(s) (see quot. 1959); P.N.E.U., Parents' National Educational Union; P.O., postal order; P.O., post office; P.O.A., Probation of Offenders Act; P.O.D., pay on delivery; P.O.D. (U.S.), Post Office Department; P. of W., Prince of Wales; POL, petrol, oil, and lubricants; P.O.O., Post Office Order; POP, Post Office Preferred; P.O.P., POP, printing-out paper; POPOP [f. the repeated initials of phenyl and oxazole, the molecule consisting of five such rings joined in this order], 1,4-di[2-(5-phenyloxazolyl)] benzene, a substance used in solution as a scintillator; POS, point of sale; POUM, P.O.U.M. [Sp. Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista], Workers' Party of Marxist Unity; P.O.W., Prince of Wales; P.O.W., POW, prisoner of war; P.P., parish priest; p.p., per procurationem, by proxy; pp or ppp (Music) = pianissimo, very softly; P-P, PP, pellagra-preventive or -preventing (formerly a designation of the vitamin now called niacin); ppb, p.p.b., parts per billion; P.P.C. (written on cards, etc.), pour prendre congé, to take leave; hence P.P.C. v. intr.; PPC, P.P.C., progressive patient care; P.P.D., PPD, purified protein derivative (of tuberculin); P.P.E., PPE, Politics, Philosophy, and Economics (a course of study at Oxford University); p.p.i., policy sufficient proof of interest; P.P.I., p.p.i., plan position indicator; PPK, Polizei Pistole Kriminal [G., police criminal pistol], a type of handgun; PPLO, pleuropneumonia-like organism(s); ppm, parts per million; P.P.S., Parliamentary Private Secretary; PPU, Peace Pledge Union; P.Q., PQ, parliamentary question; P.R., photographic reconnaissance; P.R., Pre-Raphaelite; P.R., prize ring; P.R., proportional representation; P.R., public relations; P.R., PR, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rican; P.R.A., President of the Royal Academy of Art; P.R.B., Pre-Raphaelite Brother(-hood); P.R.O., Public Record Office; P.R.O., public relations officer; PROM, programmable read-only memory (cf. ROMs.v. R II. 2 a); PROP, Preservation of the Rights of Prisoners; P.R.S., Performing Rights Society; P.R.S., President of the Royal Society; P.S., ‘prompter side’ in a theatre; P.S.A., Pleasant Sunday Afternoon; PSBR, public sector borrowing requirement; p.s.c., passed staff college; p.s.i.(a.), psi, pounds per square inch (absolute); P.S.V., p.s.v., public service vehicle; P.T., physical training; P.T., PT, purchase tax; Pt. (Chem.), Platinum; pt., part, pint; P.T.A., Parent–Teacher Association; PT boat (U.S.), patrol torpedo boat; PTC, phenylthiocarbamide; P.T.I., physical training instructor; P.T.O., p.t.o., = please turn over; p.t.o., PTO, power take-off; Pty. (Austral. commercial), proprietary; P.U.O., pyrexia of unknown origin; P.U.S., PUS, Permanent Under-Secretary; pw, p.w., per week; P.W.D., Public Works Department; PWR, pressurized-water reactor; PX (U.S. mil.), Post Exchange; p-y-o, PYO = pick your own s.v. pick v. 5 c. Also PABA, pH, p-n-p, , p-type.
1900Perkin & Kipping Organic Chem. 316 The most usual course in the case of the di⁓derivatives is to employ the terms ortho-, meta-, and para-, or simply o, m, and *p,..para-nitrophenol or p- nitrophenol.
1740J. Grassineau Mus. Dict. 173 *P, in the Italian music, frequently signifies piano, which is what we called soft. 1888Kipling Masque of Plenty in Departm. Ditties (1890) 48 (adagio dim.) Fillèd with praise... (p) Ay, paint our swarthy billions The richest of vermilions. 1957H. Shanet Learn to read Music iv. 123 Between f and p, there are mezzo forte.., and mezzo piano (medium soft). 1977G. Warfield How to write Music Manuscript 133 Place a ‘p’ under the first note and a ‘pp’ under the last in these two examples.
1902W. Bateson et al. Rep. Evolution Comm. R. Soc. I. 160 We suggest as a convenient designation for the parental generation the letter *P. In crossing, the P generation are the pure forms... Starting from any subject-individual, P2 is the grand⁓parental, P3 the great-grandparental generation, and so on. 1918Babcock & Clausen Genetics Rel. Agric. x. 180 (caption) Re-appearance of parental values in the F2 offspring. P1 Leaf Factor. 1952Srb & Owen General Genetics ix. 164 Verify this by diagramming a sequence of crosses through F2 where the P generation is the reciprocal of the one shown in the text. 1975V. Grant Genetics of Flowering Plants i. 9 The experimental results can be summarized as follows: P round yellow × wrinkled green.
1934Webster, *p.,..penny. 1968Times 17 Apr. 6/1 The 10p. and 5p. coins could appear in small change almost at once. 1973Guardian 18 Dec. 13/3 We couldn't get away with a half p in tax evasion—but they do. 1976‘W. Trevor’ Children of Dynmouth iv. 95 Yesterday had officially been the last day for entries, but he'd seen no reason to turn away the man's fifty p.
1901G. B. Shaw Let. 7 Nov. in B. Shaw & Mrs. Campbell (1952) 14 Titheradge's determination to die parrallel [sic] to the float with his heels O.P. and his head *P..rather spoils the picture. 1933P. Godfrey Back-Stage i. 18 The amber circuits in No. 1 batten, floats, and P. and O.P. perches.
1964H. S. Hvistendahl Engin. Units iii. 29 In the French decree of May 3rd, 1961, the name pascal (*Pa), is adopted for the N/m2. 1975Nature 2 Oct. 371/2 The density of vitreous silica is affected irreversibly by the application of pressures of more than 2 × 109 Pa.
a1912W. T. Rogers Dict. Abbrev. (1913) 145/2 *p.a., Per annum (For the year). 1931Times 16 Mar. 22/4 (Advt.), Present rental value {pstlg}300–{pstlg}350 p.a. 1955Times 7 July 1/5 Salary, {pstlg}1,200–{pstlg}1,600 p.a., plus free furnished quarters, fuel, light, water.
1942Partridge Dict. Abbrev. 73/1 *P.A... Personal Assistant. 1943N. Balchin Small Back Room i. 14 D'you think Higgins goes in for women? We might hire him a suitable P.A. 1969D. Clark Nobody's Perfect ii. 61 Couldn't his P.A. have rung you when you got home? 1975M. Sinclair Long Time Sleeping iii. 38 Gilbert Winter's office and the adjacent one of his long-suffering PA.
1963*P.A. [see kletterschuh]. 1972D. Haston In High Places ii. 35 Neil and I [were] ahead leaving the other two arguing about who should wear the one pair of P.A.'s. (These are special boots for hard rock-climbing, with stiff, smooth rubber soles and canvas uppers. The initials are those of their inventor, Pierre Allain, a famous French climber before the Second World War.)
1913E. M. Forster Let. 1 Jan. in Hill of Devi (1953) 25 The Political Agent from Neemuch..brought a party... The *P.A...planted himself on the State for the night. 1937F. Stark Baghdad Sketches 187 [They] send messages to the P.A.
1940Chambers's Techn. Dict. 608/1 *P.A., power amplifier. 1971Melody Maker 4 Sept. 20 The giant PA's distort their guitars out of all recognition.
1936Amer. Speech XI. 220 In terms of the theater, the *P.A. is the Press Agent. 1958Spectator 11 July 53/2 The press box was empty except for PA and The Times.
1915M. Macdonagh Diary 6 Oct. in London during Gt. War (1935) ii. iii. 80 My friend Howe, of the ‘*P.A.’. 1942Partridge Dict. Abbrev. 73/1 P.A...Publishers' Association. But also Press Association. 1972D. McLachlan No Case for Crown iii. 45 I'll deal with the P.A.; their news editor used to work under me.
1968Listener 4 Apr. 442/3 Four of these programme assistants form the nucleus of Radio Sheffield's staff... My immediate task is to look at the material..left for me the previous night by one of the other *PA's.
1936Amer. Speech XI. 220 In radio, a *P.A. system is a public address system. 1953Pohl & Kornbluth Space Merchants (1955) ii. 23 The PA system announced that my flight was ready. 1963Times Lit. Suppl. 1 Mar. 156/1 Marlowe anticipated Whitman's barbaric yawp by setting up a national PA system of blank verse. 1964S. Bellow Herzog (1965) 35 Over the p.a. system the management begged the spectators not to throw pennies.
1963J. R. Davies Understanding Television xiii. 485 Mention must be made of the recently introduced *PAL system, developed by Telefunken... The PAL system has been investigated by the European Broadcasting Union... PAL is based on the N.T.S.C. system. 1968Listener 21 Nov. 687/2 It's not quite true..that PAL and SECAM are ‘irreconcilable’ now that at least one inventor is trying to market a cheap conversion kit. 1975New Scientist 31 July 274/1 Commercial TV resolution in the US is 525 lines, against Europe's PAL standard of 625 lines.
1863Dickens Uncomm. Trav. in All Year Round 6 June 350/2 The well-known regularity of the *P. and O. Steamers. 1880Standard 15 May 5/3 The trim mates of P. and O. liners. 1892Mrs. Clifford Aunt Anne I. iii. 59 She fancied him on board a P. and O.
1951Gloss. Aeronaut. Terms (B.S.I.) iii. 21 Final controller, a radar controller employed in the transmission of *PAR talk-down instructions to the pilot of an aircraft on the final approach to the runway, and in passing monitoring information to the pilot when using a landing aid other than PAR. 1966McGraw-Hill Encycl. Sci. & Technol. X. 578/2 In common practice, the ground PAR operators call instructions to the pilot.
1946Lancet 5 Jan. 15/2 Treatment with p-aminosalicylic acid (*P.A.S.) was given in three periods with concomitant falls in temperature. 1959J. Braine Vodi vi. 85 They'd tried strep. and P.A.S. 1971Brit. Jrnl. Dis. Chest Jan. p. vi (Advt.), A choice of flavoured drinks{ddd}the acceptable way of taking PAS and Isoniazid.
1944Times 4 Apr. 2/2 (heading) *PAYE begins. 1956‘C. Blackstock’ Dewey Death iv. 89 Miss Holmes..[was] doggedly working out the P.A.Y.E. for the thirty members of I.L.D.A. staff. 1972Accountant 21 Sept. 343/1 Scare stories..about the implications of the proposed letter suffixes to employees' PAYE code numbers, have been officially denounced.
1958Spectator 27 June 829/2 The need is to make the idea of *PAYV much more familiar than it is. There have been many references to it from time to time in the press in the last few years, but for some reason the idea has never caught on.
1916B.E.F. Times 1 Dec. f. 4/1 So here's to the lads of the *P.B.I. Who live in a ditch that never is dry. a1918J. T. B. McCudden Five Yrs. in R. Flying Corps (1919) 134 The famous Ypres salient..was by no means regarded with friendly feelings by the Infantry—or P.B.I. as they generally call themselves. 1946Jrnl. R. United Service Inst. XCI. 52 He is the ‘P.B.I.’ of the service on whom the final success of the scheme depends. 1949F. Swinnerton Doctor's Wife comes to Stay 149 He's only the P.B. Author. 1952Sunday Times 14 Dec. 7/3 Procedural remedies are being sought, mostly by back-benchers—the ‘P.B.I.’ of Parliament. 1968W. Winward Conscripts xii. 154 The p.b.i. gets the chopper, but never the officer. 1972Guardian 1 Feb. 12/2 In the trenches the PBI..await the order to go over the top. 1976Times Lit. Suppl. 30 Jan. 106/1 The Crossman interpretation of the position of the MP whom he sees as the PBI of the mass party.
1970N.Y. Times 26 Feb. 95/4 Mr. Gunn is responsible for..managing the country's 190-station public television network. *P.B.S. has been in existence for three months. 1972Newsweek 4 Sept. 89 PBS abandoned floor reporting and trained its cameras only on speakers at the rostrum. 1978Broadcast 16 Jan. 2/3 PBS takes ‘Love for Lydia’... It will be screened on..the [US] Public Broadcasting System. 1986N.Y. Times 12 May c15/1 WPBT has earned respect and envy in the national PBS community by managing to drop on-the-air subscription campaigns—telethons that are called ‘begathons’ behind the scenes by station managers.
1874‘Mark Twain’ Lett. to Publishers (1967) 80 Bliss had contracted to pay me 10 *p.c. on my next book... He paid 7½ p.c. on Roughing It and 5 p.c. on Innocents Abroad. 1931N. & Q. 26 Dec. 465/2 A 10 p.c. solution of oxalic acid will be useful if ink-stains be present.
1978Proc. Internat. Symposium Mini & Micro Computers 1977 264/2 The *PC stores complex patterns of investment information and synthesizes them into investment decisions. 1982Computerworld 27 Dec. 40/1 Then the next year the PC (Personal Computer) came out and you saw that for $3,000 you could do the same thing you had paid all that money for. 1986Your Business Mar. 45/1 The functioning of word processors or PCs is only a minute part of the transformation that can be achieved.
1889E. C. Dowson Let. 21 Feb. (1967) 39, I enclose a *P.C. wh. I had just written—it is no longer necessary—but you may as well post it. 1951R. Macaulay Lett. to Friend (1961) 194, I had..a nice picture p.c. from Father Pedersen from Rome.
1881E. W. Hamilton Diary 22 Nov. (1972) I. 185, I told Mr. G. he ought to make May a *P.C. 1973Whitaker's Almanack 1974 84 The Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, p.c., k.t., g.c.v.o., aged 78.
1960P. H. Nidditch Elem. Logic Sci. & Math. 29 In a *PC of the usual, axiomatic type the only definitions are those of connectives. 1965Hughes & Londey Elem. Formal Logic xv. 101 In 1910, in the first volume of Principia Mathematica, Whitehead and Russell presented an axiomatization of PC. Ibid. xxix. 211 Their validity can be determined by PC methods alone. 1973J. J. Zeman Modal Logic xi. 181 One might ask if there is a modal system bearing an analogous relationship to the classical PC. Ibid. xii. 191 The definition of complete modalization was extended to include certain PC theorems.
1977Engin. Materials & Design Aug. 9/2 Thought to be the most powerful calculator/watch combination on the market, hybrid construction is used to mount the chips on a small *pcb which also carries a miniature 5 by 4 matrix keyboard. 1977Gramophone Nov. 960/3 It is not usual to mount heavy components on PCBs.
1947Bell Syst. Techn. Jrnl. XXVI. 395 This paper describes an experiment in transmitting speech by *PCM, or pulse code modulation. 1966Punch 10 Aug. 224 PCM will enable each existing pair of telephone cables to carry twelve times as many conversations as before. 1972[see modulation 7]. 1977Broadcast 7 Nov. 10/1 Sound radio signals..are distributed in pcm multiplex form along analogue television links.
1973*PCP [see phencyclidine]. 1977Time 18 July 35/3 Disturbing increases in the use of a dangerous new street drug called PCP.
1960J. Drake in E. Davies Roads iv. 85 The term ‘passenger car unit’ or *p.c.u. is used in capacity measurements to make allowance for mixed traffic—all motor vehicles count as one unit, except heavy goods vehicles, buses, and coaches which count three. On a road having moderately high volumes of heavy traffic it is found that the p.c.u. count is 50% more than that for motor vehicles. 1966New Scientist 29 Sept. 711/3 The unit of traffic he used was the ‘passenger-car unit’ (pcu) which is employed by the Ministry of Transport. A bus is rated at 3 pcu, for example.
1887W. E. Ayrton Pract. Electr. vii. 371 An influence machine can produce a *P.D. between its terminals of some hundreds of thousands of volts. 1935J. N. Friend Text-bk. Physical Chem. II. vii. 297 Experimental measurement of the P.D. between two liquids presents many difficulties. 1963A. F. Abbott Ordinary Level Physics xxxvii. 487 The terminal p.d. is always less than the e.m.f., and the difference..represents the p.d. required to send the current through the internal resistance of the cell.
1956‘C. Raven’ Underworld Nights 30 The last I heard of him he was done for pinching a shaving brush from Woolworth's and sentenced to eight years *P.D. under the new act. 1959New Statesman 24 Jan. 102/2 My seven hosts were all preventive detainees (PDs) serving terms of five to 14 years imprisonment, and with three or more convictions. 1973J. Wood North Beat vi. 81 The thought of preventive detention appalled him. There was no remission with P.D.
1969New Scientist 17 July 115/1 The critical operation is then a ‘three-phase powered descent initiation’ or *PDI, the braking manoeuvre which begins at this low point and reduces the vehicle's velocity to zero at a height of around 7000 feet.
c1875B. Woolf Mighty Dollar in B. H. Clark Favorite Amer. Plays 19th Cent. (1943) 489 That's right, you'd better step *P.D.Q., pretty damn quick. 1890Ladies' Home Jrnl. July 12/4 The P.D.Q. Camera. 1891Kipling Life's Handicap 189 He went as his instructions advised p.d.q.—which means ‘with speed’. 1926[see make v.1 65 c]. 1961B. E. Wallace Death packs Suitcase v. 55 I'd come back here P.D.Q., because here I'd know my way around. 1974‘A. Haig’ Peruvian Printout 33 Whoever is messing about with our computers, I want him found p.d.q.
1956J. Edmundson P.E. Teachers' Handbk. vi. 30 Quite effective *P.E. lessons can be taken in a classroom even with..very limited space. 1973J. Burrows Like an Evening Gone iii. 40 Sporting equipment of a modest kind,..a vaulting horse and a set of P.E. mats. 1976‘W. Trevor’ Children of Dynmouth v. 115 Stringer, the headmaster, was rubbish; the P.E. man went after the girls.
1949F. S. Chapman Jungle is Neutral ii. 19 We piled the dicky high with Tommy-guns, cases of *P.E. (plastic high explosive), grenades, and an assortment of demolition and incendiary devices. 1971P. O'Donnell Impossible Virgin xiii. 261 He had some fuse and plastic explosive, but{ddd}using p.e. to set off a bullet would produce the wrong sort of noise.
1923Times 2 May 11/3 Mr. John Galsworthy presided last night over a company of playwrights, poets, essayists, and novelists at an international dinner given by the *P.E.N. Club. 1924G. S. Gordon Let. 20 Sept. (1943) 176 A private dinner in the evening with the Stockholm Pen Club (P—poets; E—editors; N—novelists). 1931T. E. Lawrence Let. 13 Apr. (1938) 718 The p.e.n. suggestion is rather astonishing. 1966‘H. MacDiarmid’ Company I've Kept xiii. 270 Saurat rendered great service to the International P.E.N., as one of its Vice-Presidents. 1969L. Hellman Unfinished Woman xiii. 195 A reception for the president of PEN, an Englishman.
1956Proc. IRE XLIV. 1710/1 For a 0·5 watt SSB signal (1w *PEP) there is 0·095 watt in the AM component. 1971Gloss. Electrotechnical, Power Terms (B.S.I.) iii. vii. 23 Peak envelope power; P.E.P. of a radio transmitter. The power supplied to the aerial transmission line or specified artificial load by a transmitter during one radio frequency cycle at the highest crest of the modulation envelope, taken under conditions of normal operation. 1976Perkowski & Stral Joy of CB vii. 70 As in AM transmissions, the peak envelope power (PEP) is still limited to 12 watts, but since the carrier is reduced or suppressed, additional power can be put into the sideband.
1986Daily Tel. 19 Mar. 1/6 *PEPs are more flexible than pension arrangements. 1986Estates Gaz. 9 Aug. 555/1 PEPs—Personal Equity Plans—are Mr Lawson's subtle persuaders which will, he hopes, turn us into a nation of shareholders. 1987Daily Tel. 4 July 16 PEP managers were at pains..to point out that the scheme is intended for long-term investment in United Kingdom shares.
1933Planning vi. 15 They began more than two years ago to study..the possibilities of renewing friction in..industry, agriculture, finance, the social services... The *PEP budget..is raised entirely from among those interested in the work. 1941J. S. Huxley Uniqueness of Man xi. 233 It [sc. group work] is far more necessary in social science, where various bodies, such as P.E.P., are studying how to perfect it as a research method. 1970I. Sieff Mem. ix. 164, I would not want to try and write a history of PEP here if I could but I would like to say something about it.
1965Acronyms & Initialisms Dict. (Gale Research Co.) 558 *P/E, Price/Earnings Ratio (Relation between price of a company's stock and its annual net income). 1969Times 30 Apr. 30/5 It leaves the historical p/e ratio on the ordinary shares..looking vulnerable for a newspaper company at 20.8.
1959Amer. Statistician Apr. 10/1 This Program Evaluation and Review Technique (code-named *PERT) is applied as a decision-making tool designed to save time in achieving end-objectives. 1960IRE Trans. Engin. Managem. VII. 103/2 PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique) utilizes the network concept of R and D projects, and analyzes the ‘time to completion’ variable. 1962[see network analysis s.v. network 5]. 1964A. Battersby Network Analysis ix. 134 Pollack has published a detailed description of how PERT was brought in to control the construction of the $47,000,000 Zero Gradient Synchrotron at the Argonne National Laboratory. 1969J. Argenti Managem. Techniques 72 The technique known as PERT..is used when the duration of an activity is not accurately known. 1974Encycl. Brit. Macropædia XIII. 600/1 Critical path method (cpm) is an optimizing procedure applicable only to certainty-type formulations of such problems. Project evaluation and review technique (pert) is applicable to risk- as well as certainty-type formulations but does not always yield optimal solutions.
a1974R. Crossman Diaries (1976) II. 126 Then we moved on to housing where we had a very strange situation because, after agreeing to the cuts *PESC demanded, the Minister of Housing made an extraordinary Ministerial announcement virtually saying that the target of 500,000 houses a year had been abandoned. 1976H. Wilson Governance of Brit. iii. 61 This meeting or ‘PESC’ was concerned not with detailed allocations of expenditure, as finally announced in February 1976, but with basic priorities.
1876Stainer & Barrett Dict. Mus. Terms 348/2 *P.f., abb. of (1) Pianoforte. (2) Piano, forte, soft then loud. (3) Più forte, louder. 1938Oxf. Compan. Mus. 712 Pianoforte,..often abbreviated pf.
1958Archit. Rev. CXXIII. 326 The ground-floor walls are of cavity construction with an inner skin of insulating *p.f.a. blocks and yellow bricks outside. 1970Sci. Jrnl. Aug. 78/2 Marketing officers of the CEGB are today developing PFA sales for a wide range of civil engineering and building activities.
1941Amer. Speech XVI. 167/2 *PFC, Private 1st Class. 1947Ibid. XXII. 112 References to rates and ranks are numerous. One variously caricatures P.F.C. (‘private first class’) as ‘poor foolish civilian’... A double P.F.C., however, is a corporal, since he has two chevrons on his sleeve. 1948J. T. Appleby Suffolk Summer iii. 13 The third, an embittered P.F.C., did odd jobs of typing and message carrying. 1955Daily Progress (Charlottesville, Va.) 24 Aug. 18/1 Pfc's with PhD's teach generals and others the fundamentals of atomic weapons. 1963T. Pynchon V. i. 13, ‘I would like to sing you a little song.’ ‘To celebrate your becoming a PFC’ said Ploy... ‘Pore Forlorn Civilian, We're goin to miss you so.’ 1977‘E. McBain’ Long Time no See xii. 198 ‘A man named James Harris, served with the Army.’.. ‘Rank?’ ‘Pfc.’
1972New Acronyms & Initialisms (Gale Research Co.) 81/2 *PG, parental guidance suggested (some material may not be suitable for pre-teenagers) (movie rating). 1974Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 6 Oct. 27/5, 61 per cent rated the film PG (Parental Guidance) or G (General Audience). 1976New Yorker 12 Jan. 70/2 Why would anybody want a PG-rated Peckinpah film? 1977Time 11 Apr. 38/3 Modest, well crafted, less bloody and less bloody-minded than most TV shows, it is a PG film that any P ought to be happy to G the kids through.
1923U. L. Silberrad Lett. J. Armiter ii. 49 They have made the suggestion that I should *p.g. with them for the autumn and winter. 1925F. Stark Let. 1 July (1974) I. 93, I am afraid I shall not be well enough to look after p.g.'s after all. 1933M. Allingham Sweet Danger v. 62 We've got one P.G. already... She's been with us three years. 1959D. Wallace Richard & Lucy v. 87 Terribly expensive rail fare, and they'd probably expect us to p.g. when we got there. 1972Times Lit. Suppl. 28 Apr. 500/4 A decayed-gentlewoman's nice home for p gs. 1977N. Slater Crossfire i. 22 I'm going to descend on you... I'd like to PG—handsome rental available.
1938R. S. Woodworth Exper. Psychol. xiii. 277 The name ‘psycho⁓galvanic reflex’ was introduced by Veraguth.., who made a comprehensive study of the Féré effect... In the present chapter we will call it *PGR. 1949Brit. Jrnl. Psychol. XL. 86 When the individuals' P.G.R. scores are obtained for a given attitude they must be expressed for each person relative to his own general P.G.R. reactivity. 1954Woodworth & Schlosberg Exper. Psychol. (rev. ed.) vi. 137/2 The rapid changes in conductance have been studied extensively and suffer from too many names. The oldest is psychogalvanic reflex (PGR), but many dislike the implications that it is psychic or a reflex. 1962New Scientist 22 Mar. 672 PGR (psychogalvanic response) records were taken for the same purpose.
1869Atlantic Monthly Jan. 89/2 His cousin, the *Ph.D. from Göttingen, cannot help despising a people who do not grow loud and red over Aryans and Turanians. 1903W. James Mem. & Stud. (1911) 331 A Ph.D. in philosophy would prove little..as to one's ability to teach literature. Ibid., He was of ultra Ph.D. quality. 1906[see D.Phil. s.v. D III. 3]. 1936Discovery May 156 Julius Grant, Ph.D., M.Sc., F.I.C. 1966J. Betjeman High & Low 40 Doubtless some pedant for his Ph.D. Has ascertained the facts. 1973G. Mitchell Murder of Busy Lizzie xv. 174 Why should any⁓body want to strangle a harmless little Ph.D. like Mr. Lovelaine?
1931G. Irwin Amer. Tramp & Underworld Slang 144 *P.I., a pimp or pander, merely a euphemism by contraction. 1970C. Major Dict. Afro-Amer. Slang 90 P.I., pimp.
1960Acronyms Dict. (Gale Research Co.) 165 *PI..Private Investigator. 1970G. F. Newman Sir, You Bastard vi. 170 The PI had his licence revoked. 1973Publishers Weekly 13 Aug. 48/3 This is the third p.i. mystery featuring Shock and his partner.
1966Economist 16 July 227/1 The Government should use the *PIB only when it is ready to back the board's recommendations to the hilt. a1974R. Crossman Diaries (1975) I. 421 We can't afford to let the policy fail and yet quite soon we are going to face the 18-per-cent increase of army pay which the P.I.B. will almost certainly award.
1959Listener 9 July 45/1 The widespread activities of the state security police, known as *PIDE. 1970Ann. Reg. 1969 276 On 19 November the [Portuguese] Government dissolved the PIDE and placed a similar organization under the direct control of the Ministry of the Interior. 1974Daily Tel. 21 Aug. 4/7 The Portuguese Legion..was outlawed together with the PIDE/DGS.
1981Sunday Times 25 Jan. 15/3 Cards with *PIN numbers written on them have been stolen... It would be pointless to try a Lloyds' card without its PIN. 1982Daily Tel. 30 Oct. 19/4 It will be his or her responsibility to ensure that the PIN is kept secret, but what of prying eyes at the checkout? 1986Financial Times Survey 12 Mar. p. vi/2 Access and Barclaycard and Standard Chartered Visa card holders who have taken up the option of a PIN..can draw cash from the ATMs of the supporting banks.
1964S. Bellow Herzog 257 Put on those *p-j's now. 1967R. De Sola Abbrev. Dict. (rev. ed.) 208/1 Pj's, peejays (pajamas). 1970New Yorker 4 Oct. 122/3 (Advt.), Cotton sleep culotte rated perfect for P.J. parties.
1943L. E. & J. B. Rhine in Jrnl. Parapsychol. VII. 20 This is the first of a long series of research reports describing experiments on what is called the ‘psychokinetic’ or ‘*PK’ effect. The PK effect is colloquially called ‘mind over matter’, and means the direct influencing of a physical system by the action of a subject's effort, without any known intermediate energy or instrumentation. Ibid. 21 Up to the present, nothing has been published on the topic of the PK effect. 1949Mind LVIII. 391 In PK the mind is supposed to cause changes in physical objects outside its own body, not by means of the nervous system and the muscular apparatus, but directly, by mere thought or ‘will’. 1973Times 4 Dec. 17/7 There is nothing new in PK (psychokinesis) and telepathy. 1976Times Lit. Suppl. 13 Feb. 172/4 Demonstrating PK in chickens, and even in fertile eggs, which appear capable of influencing mentally an electronic randomizer controlling the switching mechanism of a lamp.
1939J. S. Furnivall Netherlands India viii. 250 Semaoen, the leader of the revolutionary section, formed a Communist party (*P.K.I.). 1944B. H. M. Vlekke Nusantara xv. 341 On May 23, 1920, the Social Democrat Club of Semarang decided to take the name Communist Party of the Indies, in Malayan, Perserikatan Kommunist di India (P.K.I.). 1973J. M. van der Kroef in R. F. Staar Yearbk. Internat. Communist Affairs 469 The oldest such party in Asia, the Communist Party of Indonesia (Partai Komunis Indonesia; PKI) formally came into existence on 23 May 1920 as an out⁓growth of the ‘Indies Social Democratic Association’ founded six years previously by Dutch Marxists.
1964Observer 19 July 8/6 The younger had been afflicted by the same dread disease—*PKU (phenylketonuria)—which had produced retardation in her sister. 1976Lancet 6 Nov. 1031/1 We have looked for differences in the mono-oxidation of phenylalanine between plasma (or serum) from normal persons and patients with p.k.u. Identification of different enzymatic activities within these two groups would be one of the first steps in the development of a test for diagnosing variants of p.k.u.
1962E. Snow Other Side of River (1963) xxxix. 290 Chinese don't use the old word ping, or ‘soldier’, any more; the *P.L.A. has only chan-shih, or ‘fighters’. 1967Ann. Reg. 1966 372 The Military Affairs Commission of the Central Committee appointed Mao's wife..‘adviser on cultural work to the People's Liberation Army’ (PLA). 1972Observer 19 Nov. 8 The PLA is none the less a revolutionary army with traditions rooted in a guerrilla past. 1977Times 12 Oct. (China Suppl.) p. iii/4 The People's Liberation Army, the PLA, is making little secret of its desire to modernize equipment under the leadership of Chairman Hua.
1925P.L.A. Monthly Nov. 16/1 The warehouses of the *P.L.A. become the Mecca of the woolbuyers of the world. Ibid. 22/1 Final tests preparatory to the opening of the P.L.A. automatic telephone system were carried out. 1936Discovery Aug. 232/1 As for using it [sc. the Thames] for transport, that is left to P.L.A. tugs, brick-barges, and an occasional pleasure steamer. 1969S. Hyland Top Bloody Secret i. 27 The PLA man in charge of the landing stage.
1973Daily Tel. 20 Dec. 15 Although the proposed new form of incorporation for small companies is temporarily shelved, a new designation for listed companies is introduced. Out goes ‘Ltd’ and in comes ‘*PLC’ or ‘Public Limited Company’. 1980Companies Act c. 22 § 78(3) The alternative of ‘public limited company’ is the abbreviation ‘p.l.c.’. 1980Daily Mail 8 Oct. 26/3 Following the implementation of..the 1980 Companies Act..we will be faced with names which resemble the lyrics of a Goodies song: ICI plc; RHM plc; [etc.]. 1983Conc. Dict. Law 290/1 The memorandum of association must state that it is a public company, that its name ends with the words ‘public limited company’ (or p.l.c.), and that its authorized capital is at least the authorized minimum ({pstlg}50,000). 1986City Limits 16 Oct. 95 Law plc has always been a generous employer.
1898W. J. Locke Idols xvi. 230 The great *P.L.M. train carried Hugh swiftly northwards. 1919R. Fry Let. 6 Oct. (1972) II. 458 The P.L.M. is really worse than the S.E.R...It's almost impossible to travel by it. 1948W. Fortescue Beauty for Ashes xxxiii. 251 For the whole of my Paris visit..he was indefatigable in his attentions, finding a free Entr'aide car..to take me to my various destinations, and battling with the P.L.M. to get me a reserved seat and, if possible, a wagon-lit to take me to the South. 1972R. Cobb Reactions to French Revolution iii. 87 The P.L.M...bypassed the river valley, to take in Montbard and Dijon.
1965Times 23 Mar. 9/2 Ahmad Shukairy, leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization (*P.L.O.) has extended his search for help to China. 1974Guardian 23 Jan. 2/4 According to the official Egyptian news agency, Yasser Arafat, the PLO chairman, addressed a message disowning the PLO statement. 1974Jewish Chron. 20 Dec. 11/1 The Palestinians, through the PLO, must show magnanimity and statesmanship. 1976Time 27 Dec. 14/1 Although badly battered from its losing role in the Lebanese civil war, the P.L.O. remains an important force.
1965PL/I: Language Specifications (IBM Form C28-6571-0) title-page, This manual is a description of the full facilities of *PL/I to be implemented under Operating System/360. 1966E. A. Weiss PL/1 Converter p. iii, Many of the limitations..of FORTRAN have been eliminated in PL/I. 1970A. Cameron et al. Computers & Old Eng. Concordances 27, I myself will be very surprised if the next generation of machines will not accept Fortran programming and probably Cobol, Algol, and pl i programming. 1972Computers & Humanities VII. 12 Work in language computation is frequently done in pl/i.
1955R. T. McKenzie Brit. Pol. Parties vii. 385 As a prelude to a discussion of the contemporary structure of the *PLP it is necessary to recall that the party in Parliament from its earliest years was plagued by two problems. 1963Butler & Freeman Brit. Pol. Facts 1900–60 ii. 94 During the war-time coalition the P.L.P. elected an Administrative Committee of twelve, with Peers' representation, all of whom were non-ministers. 1974Times 22 Mar. 1/8 (heading) Mr. Mikardo elected PLP head. 1976H. Wilson Governance of Britain viii. 160 A Labour prime minister has to operate in a number of intersecting party political circles. The first is PLP meetings.
1969Guardian Weekly 27 Mar. 16/3 The present plan for a public lending right, or *PLR, has been drawn up by the Arts Council. 1984Listener 26 Jan. 10/1 PLR, or the Public Lending Right Scheme, has just displayed its capacities as a support.
1968McGraw-Hill Yearbk. Sci. & Technol. 359/1 A portable life support system (*PLSS) back pack will provide breathing oxygen, suit pressurization, carbon dioxide removal, liquid cooling and oxygen temperature control, biomedical monitoring package, suit pressure and high oxygen flow sensors, and communications. 1970N. Armstrong et al. First on Moon iii. 63 Complete with the PLSS, the Armstrong and Aldrin suits weighed one hundred eighty-three pounds.
1764A. Williams Universal Psalmodist (ed. 2) 87 Hallifax. Hymn 50tḥ..*P.M. Ibid. 91 Dalston. Psalm 122ḍ Dṛ W. P.M. 1798[see metre n.1 1 b]. a1912W. T. Rogers Dict. Abbrev. (1913) 152/2 P.M. (mus.), peculiar metre (of hymns).
1666Hook in Phil. Trans. 242 March 28th 3h. *p.m. c1830in M. Johnson Amer. Advertising, 1800–1900 (1960), Worcester, Ms. and New York Mail Stage Line..leaves Worcester, Wednesday and Saturday mornings at 3, and arrives in Norwich at 4 same p.m. Ibid., The Fanny..arrives in Norwich next morning; and in Worcester, by stage, in the p.m. 1845Punch VIII. 54/2 The lights along the Hampstead Road still persist in turning day into night, and burning for several hours after p.m. c1850Rudim. Navig. (Weale) 14 With the astronomical day it is always P.M. 1965New Statesman 23 Apr. 661/3 While I am abroad..entries must reach the office Monday p.m. 1974F. Nolan Oshawa Project xx. 119 Staff meeting this pm at 1500 hours.
1911Webster, *P.M. or p.m...post mortem, or post mortem examination. 1922Lancet 12 Aug. 358/1 It seems possible that death resulted from a dislocation of the neck. Were the vertebræ examined p.m.? 1928D. L. Sayers Unpleasantness at Bellona Club xvi. 187 The advisability of a P.M. in all cases of sudden death. 1938S. Beckett Murphy xii. 259 They carried him into the p.m. room. 1973R. Hill Ruling Passion i. ii. 15 We haven't had the PM yet, but the doctor was very certain it happened last evening.
1907W. S. Churchill Let. 27 Mar. in R. S. Churchill Winston Churchill (1969) II. Compan. I. 653 Could not you or the *PM send him a ‘private & personal’ urging him not to fail us. 1915Lloyd George Family Lett. (1973) 178 It was found impossible..for the P.M. to hold Exchequer during the time I am occupied in organising Munitions. 1972M. Sinclair Norslag ii. 15 The P.M. wants you round at the Cabinet Office.
1948Schour & Massler in Jrnl. Dental Res. XXVII. 733 A quantitative method of assessing the prevalence of gingivitis in large groups of persons is proposed. Each gingival unit consisting of a papillary portion (P), a marginal portion (M), and an attached portion (A) is examined and counted separately. This method is tentatively termed the *P-M-A-Index (P-papillary gingivitis; M-marginal gingivitis; A-attached gingivitis). 1962Blake & Trott Periodontology iii. 27 The difficulty of assessment of gingivitis has been partly overcome by the use of the P.M.A. index. 1969Gloss. Terms Dentistry (B.S.I.) 67 P.M.A. index (papillary, marginal and attached index), an epidemiological index for scoring the extent of gingival inflammation.
1890Webster, *P.M.G., Postmaster-general. 1908G. B. Shaw Coll. Lett. (1972) II. 803 Your letter..did not overtake me until I arrived here (Bayreuth), too late for a rejoinder to the P.M.G. 1927[see franking machine]. 1968Listener 29 Aug. 285/2 Vague recent statements by the PMG, Mr. Stonehouse. a1974R. Crossman Diaries (1976) II. 71 When Ted Short replaced Tony Benn as P.M.G. the Post Office was delighted.
1942J. Hammond et al. in Jrnl. Agric. Sci. XXXII. 308 To avoid the constant use of cumbersome phrases, gonadotrophic extracts of the urine of pregnant women (chorionic gonadotrophin) are referred to through⁓out the text as ‘u.p.’, and extracts of the serum of pregnant mares as ‘*p.m.s.’ 1957Times 2 Dec. (Agric. Suppl.) p. vi/2 In experiments with Romney Marsh, Cheviot and Southdown sheep, P.M.S. injections have increased the number of lambs born of each ewe mated. 1970W. H. Parker Health & Dis. in Farm Animals vii. 84 The method that appears most likely to succeed is a combination of progesterone and P.M.S.
1959K. D. Kryter in Jrnl. Acoustical Soc. Amer. XXXI. 1425/1 The translation from perceived noisiness in noys to perceived noise level in *PNdb is expressed by the equation PNdb = (1.2t log10 N)/0.03, where N is the number of noys. By definition, the perceived noise level of sound ‘X’ (in PNdb) is the sound pressure level in db re 0·0002 µbar of the 910– 1090 cps band of random noise that is judged by an average listener to be acceptable (or, inversely, as unacceptable) as sound ‘X’, under specified conditions of listening and testing. 1966Science 18 Mar. 1346/3 As a practical matter, the loudness level, in phons, and the perceived noise level, in PNdb's, of a sound are usually calculated from acoustical measures of the sound rather than found by subjective judgement tests. 1971New Scientist 18 Mar. 604/1 In calculating the NNI for any given point, a number of standard flight paths are assumed and the PNdB level for each type of aircraft moving along each possible flight path is then calculated, together with the number of aircraft movements.
a1912W. T. Rogers Dict. Abbrev. (1913) 153/1 *P.N.E.U..., Parents' National Educational Union. 1931Times Educ. Suppl. 14 Mar. 98/1 P.N.E.U. methods... The paper on English Teaching..is of especial interest to the Parents' National Educational Union. 1972R. Asher Talking Sense viii. 103, I was looking at the material my daughter of thirteen is studying at the P.N.E.U. school she attends.
1861Geo. Eliot Let. 17 May (1954) III. 415 You are at liberty to imagine a kiss from me, or else to accept a note for it payable at sight. They don't give *P.O.'s for such payment here. 1891A. Beardsley Let. 25 Dec. (1971) 31, I shall be glad of a few more copies of the November Bee, so enclosed PO for 1/-.
1824E. Weeton Jrnl. May (1969) II. 280, I wished to see the General Post Office... I was close by the *P.O., and could not tell which was it. 1973Guardian 18 Apr. 12/3 Is not the ratio of inland to EEC-bound mail such that the PO (which is no longer G) would more than cover its costs.
1944J. H. Bagot Punitive Detention i. 13 In the years 1936 to 1939 a marked tendency is disclosed for the proportions discharged *P.O.A. and fined to decrease and for the proportion placed on probation to increase. 1945N. & Q. 10 Mar. 106/1 ‘Dismissed P.O.A.’ simply means that a case is dismissed under the Probation of Offenders Act, 1907... Such dismissals are of such daily occurrence in the courts that P.O.A. are initials as commonly understood as are R.A.F. or Y.M.C.A. in their respective spheres.
1859*P.O.D. [see d.]. 1890Webster, P.O.D., Post-Office Department; pay on delivery.
1870A. J. Munby Diary 13 July in D. Hudson Munby (1972) 288 Today the Thames Embankment was opened, not by the Queen, but by the *P. of W. and his sister Louise. 1974Listener 3 Jan. 17/2 Lord Berners..invited a smart lady to luncheon to meet ‘the P of W’. She arrived agog, expecting to meet the Prince of Wales and found it was the Provost of Worcester.
1944Times 7 June 6/1 The operational planning for invasion had to be interpreted at an early stage in terms of *P.O.L. requirements. 1955Bull. Atomic Sci. Feb. 56/3 As it was, POL (gasoline and liquid fuels) were excluded from Pusan and unloaded by offshore floating lines. 1977R.A.F. News 22 June–5 July 11/3 Training is centred on the ground attack role, with simulated attack profiles (SAPs) being flown against..POL objectives (Petrol, Oil, Lubricants).
1856J. A. Symonds Let. 28 June (1967) I. 75 Thank Papa very much for the *P.[ost] O[ffice] O.[rder] which I got cashed without difficulty. 1886W. S. Churchill Let. 13 July in R. S. Churchill Winston Churchill (1967) I. Compan. I. iv. 123, I received the P.O.O. which you sent me and am very thankful for it. 1966Gurnett & Kyte Cassell's Dict. Abbrev. 169/2 P.O.O., Post Office Order.
1968Which? 11 Jan. 2/2 The Post Office have told us that they are introducing a new system of envelope sizing, called Post Office Preferred (*POP). Packets which are not the size the Post Office prefers will not qualify for the cheapest postal rates. 1971D. Potter Brit. Eliz. Stamps ix. 95 As part of the standardisation programme, the Post Office issued pop (Post Office Preferred) sizes during the course of 1968.
1895W. K. Burton Man. Photogr. viii. 126 Paper for the [gelatino-chloride] process..is sold under various names... Examples are ‘Solio-artistotype’, ‘Artisto-platino’ and ‘*P.O.P.’ 1925P. R. Salmon All about Photogr. xx. 94 There is practically no difference between the cost of a finished print on P.O.P. and one on self-toning paper. 1972A. Tyrrell Basics of Reprogr. vi. 105 POP should perhaps be remembered as more nearly a reprographic than a photographic process.
1955Science 9 Dec. 1139/3 A solution of 0·4-percent PPO and 0·01-percent 1,4-di(5-phenyl-2-oxazolyl)benzene (*POPOP) has been used, which gives..a pulse height of 121 percent. 1975McGraw-Hill Yearbk. Sci. & Technol. 261/2 The scintillator dye POPOP, heated in an oven to a vapor pressure of about 10 torrs.., when pumped with 400 kW of ultraviolet light from a nitrogen laser, has produced 30 kW of tunable laser output.
1972Newsweek 16 Oct. 94/1 Throughout the trade..some 44,000 point-of-sale (*POS) terminals already are in service. 1984Times 25 Oct. 37/8 The retailer does not and will not pay for the bankers' side of POS.
1937F. Borkenau Spanish Cockpit ii. 82 The depth of the antagonism between Esquerra and PSUC on the one hand and CNT and *POUM on the other becomes intelligible. 1940N. Mitford Pigeon Pie iii. 48 ‘It's Hitler and Stalin now, don't forget the wedding bells.’ Mary had gone P.O.U.M., so she grudgingly conceded this point.
1916F. M. Ford Let. 23 Aug. (1965) 69 The *P.O.W.—who was quite unrecongnizable, was perfectly businesslike. 1966Gurnett & Kyte Cassell's Dict. Abbrev. 170/1 P.O.W...Prince of Wales.
1919W. H. Downing Digger Dial. 39 *P.O.W., prisoner of war. 1941War Illustr. 31 Jan. 101/1 P.O.W. camps in Germany and Poland are shown in this map. 1953News Chron. 2 June 2/3 In Pusan..Pyun Yung Tai repeated his threat that foreign troops arriving to supervise P.o.W.s after a ceasefire would have to ‘fight their way into Korea’. 1957J. Braine Room at Top xiii. 128 What do you think a POW gets to eat? 1973Black Panther 21 July 6/3 Former POW Sergeant Robert P. Chenoweth, 25, of Portland.
1882R. Bithell Counting-House Dict. 235 *P.P. Endorsements. Endorsements by procuration—that is, per-procuration... The following is the usual form of a per-pro endorsement. ‘Pay to the Order of Blanc & Co. ‘Per Pro Shipley & Sons. ‘Thos. Brown.’ 1882[see per prep. I. 7]. 1922F. von Hügel Let. 29 Nov. (1927) 364 Yours very sincerely F. v. Hügel (pp. S.B.). 1967E. Lemarchand Death of Old Girl i. 12 All the other letters can wait... Sign the ones we've done p.p.
1724Short Explic. Foreign Words in Mus. Bks. 53 The letter P is often used as an Abbreviation of the Word piano: and *PP as an Abbreviation of the Words piu piano: and PPP as an Abbreviation of the Word pianissimo. 1966Listener 2 June 815/2 Helga Pilarczyk..often ignored the composer's repeated demands for pp or sometimes ppp singing.
1925Goldberger & Tanner in Public Health Rep. (U.S. Public Health Service) XL. 77 It would seem as if the heretofore unrecognized pellagra-preventive factor, to which we shall hereafter refer as factor *P-P, were capable of preventing the disease with little if any cooperation from the protein factor of the diet. 1926― in Ibid. XLI. 307 If the so-called growth-promoting water⁓soluble vitamin of the yeast is distinct from the anti⁓neuritic and from the P–P factor, then [etc.]. 1935Biochem. Jrnl. XXIX. 2830 (heading) The vitamin B2 complex. Differentiation of the antiblacktongue and the ‘P.-P.’ factors from lactoflavin and vitamin B6. 1942Bicknell & Prescott Vitamins in Med. v. 259 Nicotinic acid was at first hailed as the PP or pellagra preventing factor, but it is now known that pellagra is a multiple deficiency disease and that lack of nicotinic acid is only one of the factors in its causation. 1967H. A. Guthrie Introd. Nutrition xii. 240/2 Niacin, another water-soluble vitamin identified with the B complex, has been known as nicotinic acid and as the pellagra preventative (P–P) factor.
1956J. Cholak in P. L. Magill et al. Air Pollution Handbk. xi. 10 The normal fluoride content of the atmosphere is extremely low (2 to 8 *ppb). 1970Nature 25 July 403/1 Locally manufactured peanut butter was highly contaminated [with aflatoxin] in almost every case, with a mean approaching 500 p.p.b. 1975Ibid. 23 Oct. 632/3 Figures in terms of p.p.b. (parts per 109) are as commonplace nowadays as p.p.m. once were and for some compounds analysts can measure as little as 1 part in 1012.
1809–12M. Edgeworth Absentee xvi, I shall make my finale, and shall thus leave a verbal *P.P.C. 1833Marryat P. Simple lxv, The..count announced his departure by a P.P.C. 1838H. C. Robinson Diary 30 Oct. (1967) 190, I called with a p.p.c. card on Samuel Rogers. 1863Mrs. Gaskell Dark Night's Work vii. 108, I don't see any reason he had to come calling and P.P.C.-ing. 1883Kipling Let. 14 Aug. in C. E. Carrington Rudyard Kipling (1955) iv. 53, I distributed my P.P.C. cards. 1909J. R. Ware Passing Eng. 191/1 To P.P.C. (Soc., 1880 on), to quarrel and cut. 1966Gurnett & Kyte Cassell's Dict. Abbrev. 170/1 p.p.c., pour prendre congé, to take leave.
1960Brit. Med. Jrnl. 10 Sept. 783/2 You cannot travel far in the United States hospital world nowadays before hearing the phrase ‘progressive patient care’ (*P.P.C.)... P.P.C. is defined as ‘the organization of facilities, services, and staff around the medical and nursing needs of the patient’. 1964G. L. Cohen What's Wrong with Hospitals? vi. 128 The very consultants who attack P.P.C. for disrupting continuity of care champion the same idea in maternity units.
1934Amer. Rev. Tuberculosis XXX. 766 Under current arrangements the Committee endorses the use of a special designation, namely ‘Tuberculin, *P.P.D. (Purified Protein Derivative)’, by these two manufacturing houses. 1951Proc. R. Soc. Med. XLIV. 1046 Even the best P.P.D. preparations on the market, of about 90% tuberculo⁓protein content, still contain appreciable quantities of polysaccharide and nucleic acid which are not known to be concerned in the intradermal tuberculin reaction at all. 1963Lincoln & Sewell Tuberculosis in Children iii. 41 The Heaf test requires a special apparatus that makes 6 skin punctures 1 mm deep through a layer of concentrated PPD containing 100,000 TU per ml.
195520th Cent. June 584 Every university may have its department of economics or philosophy or sociology, but only Oxford—with or without sociology—has *PPE. 1964E. Waugh Little Learning viii. 173 A new, disreputable school named Modern Greats (now dubbed P.P.E.) was for ‘publicists and politicians’. 1972Times Lit. Suppl. 3 Nov. 1310/2 Edward Heath and Harold Wilson read PPE.
1895Kennedy in Law Times Rep. LXXII. 861/1 All these ‘disbursements’ policies were *p.p.i. or ‘honour’ policies—policies, that is to say, wherein it was stipulated that the policy should be deemed sufficient proof of interest.
1945Electronic Engin. XVII. 683/1 With the Battle of Britain by night must be associated..the use of G.C.I., or Ground Control Interception, which Dr. Denis Taylor developed, using the *P.P.I. (Plan Position Indicator) for the first of its many applications. 1959New Scientist 23 July 97/2 In the ppi system the position of the echoes with respect to the ship is built up in plan or map form on the face of a cathode ray tube. 1966McGraw-Hill Encycl. Sci. & Technol. I. 163/2 PPI presentations also change with altitude and direction of approach, making identification more difficult.
1946W. H. B. Smith Walther Pistols 26 The *P.P.K. means Polizeipistole Kriminal, indicating that the arm is intended for detectives and other police not in uniform who need a smaller weapon which can be readily concealed about the person. 1948― Small Arms of World (ed. 4) 424 Characteristics of PPK Model: Length 5.8{pp}. Barrel 3.25{pp}. Weight 19 oz. Capacity 7. 1973J. M. White Garden Game 173 The Jensen..had been thoroughly searched, but the PPK had been clipped back under the dash. 1975J. McClure Snake iii. 36 Zondi..checked his PPK automatic. 1976G. Seymour Glory Boys x. 121 For close protection work he favoured the PPK (Polizei Pistolen Kriminal) Walther... The PPK was a small weapon, manufactured..by..the Karl Walther factory at Ulm.
1947Proc. Soc. Exper. Biol. & Med. LXIV. 165/2 The most reliable method for the identification of the *P.P.LO. is the use of stained agar preparations. Ibid., The P.P.L.O. are resistant to sulfonamides and to penicillin. 1965Listener 11 Mar. 372/1 Unlike viruses, PPLO can grow in the absence of living host cells. 1972Science 5 May 504/1 The mycoplasmas (originally called pleuropneumonia-like organisms or PPLO) have been studied both by people who want to grow them for study because of their pathogenicity and small size and by people who want to get rid of them because they are common tissue culture contaminants.
1913Bull. Univ. Illinois: Water Survey Series No. 10, 42 (table) Dissolved oxygen, *p.p.m. 1948New Biol. V. 64 At 1–5 ppm it can be used..as a means of inducing tomatoes to set without pollination. 1964Punch 25 Nov. 806/2 A peregrine found dead on Lundy Island contained 78 ppm of total chlorinated hydrocarbon in its liver.
1936H. Nicolson Let. 12 June (1966) 265 Then his *P.P.S. took him by the arm and he left the House for ever. 1959Times 23 Oct. 14/6 Mr. Barber had served as a whip before he became P.P.S. to the Prime Minister in February, 1958. 1973O. Lancaster Littlehampton Bequest 94 At the last Government reshuffle he was appointed P.P.S. to the Minister of Exploitation. 1976H. Wilson Governance of Britain ii. 30 Apart from this, my experience of consultation is that, in ninety per cent of the cases, the senior minister concerned recommended his own P.P.S. for promotion in his own or another department—advice I did not always follow.
1937A. Huxley Let. 30 Mar. (1969) 416, I have talked to the secretary of the *PPU and he agrees that it will be best to go ahead with the 6d. edition in paper. 1973Freedom 1 Sept. 4/1 Convinced pacifists of the PPU type.
1948R.A.F. Rev. Feb. 3 (heading) The path of the ‘*P.Q.’. 1962Observer 6 May 21/5 The parliamentary question—the ‘P.Q.’ 1975M. Sinclair Long Time Sleeping ix. 117 ‘Everything stops for a PQ,’ he said... ‘Is there a Parliamentary Question down?’ Pringle asked. 1976H. Wilson Governance of Britain vii. 132 Prime ministers approach the bi-weekly ordeal by questions in different frames of mind, but of two things I am sure: no prime minister looks forward to ‘PQs’ with anything but apprehension; every prime minister works long into the night on his answers.
1943Aeroplane Spotter 3 Dec. 278 (caption) The De Havilland *P.R. Mosquito. 1946R.A.F. Jrnl. May 153 We are indebted for the photographs and specialized articles with which the P.R. people supplied us. 1958Times Lit. Suppl. 24 Jan. 48/5 Another part of the secret was to have P.R. grouped together.
1851Art Jrnl. July 186/2 A school..that..will continue to exist unless Mr. Ruskin and his friends the *P.-R.s upset it. 1874L. Troubridge Life amongst Troubridges (1966) ix. 75 Amy's present rage..is to make her room pre-Raphaelite, with a border of P.R. bulrushes all round it.
1829P. Egan Boxiana 2nd Ser. II. 8 A boxer of considerable notoriety in the London *P.R. 1863‘Ouida’ Held in Bondage I. iii. 64 Heroes of the Turf and the P.R. 1966Gurnett & Kyte Cassell's Dict. Abbrev. 170/2 P.R., Prize Ring.
1885H. Sidgwick in A. & E. M. Sidgwick Henry Sidgwick (1906) 400 The application of the principle of *P.R. to University Constituencies. 1909(heading) P.R. Pamphlet No. 1 (Revised March 1909). 1924[see labour n. 2 c]. 1935H. Finer (title) The case against PR. 1974Times 2 Mar. 14/4 If PR is to come in Britain the crucial issue is whether it is to be the single-member or multi⁓member kind.
1942Partridge Dict. Abbrev. 77/1 *P.R...Public Relations. (The publicity department of certain Services and Ministries.) 1944A. Jacob Traveller's War 200 The remains of the P.R. unit set off down the desert road. 1963H. Kubly Whistling Zone (1964) ii. xv. 177 Your students are giving you an excellent PR. 1977Time 31 Jan. 48/3 The p.r. man behind this is the star.
1909Cent. Dict. Suppl., *P.R., an abbreviation..(b) of Porto Rico. 1966Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. 1964 xlii. 41 Terms used exclusively for Puerto Rican include..P.R. 1972D. E. Westlake Cops & Robbers (1973) 9 There were no customers in there; just the Puerto Rican clerk... The PR was neutral as gray paint.
1895G. B. Shaw Our Theatres in Nineties (1932) I. 32 If the friend of Sir Joshua Reynolds had been Sir David Garrick, and if every successive *P.R.A. had had for his officially recognized peer the leading actor of his day. 1975Country Life 18 Dec. 1736/2 Sir Gerald Kelly..the first of the televised art popularisers as PRA.
1849D. G. Rossetti Let. 1 Oct. (1965) I. 73 Love to our family, the *P.R.B., and all. 1850W. M. Rossetti P.R.B. Jrnl. in Preraphaelite Diaries & Lett. (1900) 283 Collins has not established a claim to the P.R.B.-hood..the connexion would not be likely to promote the intimate friendly relations necessary between all P.R.B.'s. 1852J. Brown Let. (1912) 128 The other morning I saw a scene which, were I a P.R.B. and a genius, I would make immortal. 1973Country Life 8 Feb. 330/1 Rossetti is strangely well suited to one aspect of today's tastes... His aims went sensationally beyond those of his fellow members of the PRB.
1892F. W. Maitland Let. 6 Sept. (1965) 105, I ought to be at *P.R.O. next week. 1931N. & Q. 5 Dec. 408/2, I cannot find the Returns of officers' services for these regiments at the P.R.O. 1958New Statesman 6 Sept. 330/2 Farewell, adieu, BM and PRO, My time is up, reluctantly I go.
1941H. Nicolson Diary 8 July (1967) 177, I drive down to White's Club with Duff [Cooper] and beg him to treat the *P.R.O.s this afternoon with all gentleness. They are a touchy lot. 1966‘H. MacDiarmid’ Company I've Kept i. 22 Philip Jordan, Attlee's P.R.O., was with us. 1970J. Tunstall Westminster Lobby Correspondents v. 56 The Prime Minister's scarcity value to the Lobby men allows him (a) to speak to the Lobby mainly through a P.R.O. and personally only on irregular occasions; (b) the P.R.O. still attracts a substantial daily attendance even when he says little.
1973Jrnl. Electrochem. Soc. CXX. 1001 (heading) Reliability of NiCr ‘fusible link’ used in *PROM's. 1977Sci. Amer. Sept. 139/1 Information stored in ROM's and PROM's is nonvolatile.
1972Guardian 1 Sept. 1/6 Prisoners were..vowing to stay up [on the roof] until the Home Office recognised the prisoners' union, *PROP. Ibid. 1/8 PROP—‘Preservation of the Rights of Prisoners’. 1973D. Curtis Dartmoor to Cambridge xiii. 121 We decided to organise the British movement by forming a prisoners' union. That was the first step in the conception of PROP, the Preservation of the Rights of Prisoners, a movement that was destined to shake the British prison system to its core four years later. 1976Daily Mail (Hull) 16 Dec. 11/4 PROP, the prisoners' rights organisation, is to hold its own public inquiry into the riot at Hull Jail. 1976A. Miller Inside Outside xi. 176 Where PROP went wrong..was in inviting men to break the prison rules.
1927Melody Maker Aug. 755/2, I am assuming..that the hall is not already licensed by the *P.R.S. 1968Listener 8 Aug. 177/3 A lot of the more superior publishers..weren't members of the PRS.
1682Grew's Anat. Plants (Order Roy. Soc.), Chr. Wren *P.R.S.
1790*P.S. [see O.P. s.v. O 6 d]. 1838R. B. Peake Quarter to Nine i, in B. Webster Acting National Drama II. 5 Apartment; Frolick's lodgings; closet door. Enter Mrs. Jervis, P.S. 1942Partridge Dict. Abbrev. 78/2 p.s., prompt side (of a theatre). Also P.S.
1899Daily News 27 Nov. 8/3 The *P.S.A.—or, to give it the full title, the Pleasant Sunday Afternoon—movement has now become pretty well known.
1976Economist 16 Oct. 105/2 The {pstlg}11½ billion public sector borrowing requirement (*PSBR). 1986Daily Tel. 19 Mar. 10/4 This year's PSBR looks like turning out at a little under {pstlg}7 billion.
1896Oxfordshire Light Infantry Chron. 1895 26 Lt.-Colonels... (1) Johnstone, J., *p.s.c. 16 Mar. 92. 1920Punch 24 Mar. 225/1 Upon my first arriving on his Staff he had said to me, ‘Oh, by the way, P.S.C., of course?’..‘You have Passed Staff College, of course?’ he said a little less affably. 1972Times 7 Sept. 16/2 Without the magic letters ‘psc’ (passed staff college) after their names their chances of being promoted above major are, at best, doubtful.
1944E. W. F. Feller Air Compressors xiv. 438 Figure 410 shows the piping arrangement for the 250 *psi method. 1959Motor 2 Sept. 75/2 This is with 5·90–13 Goodyear tubed tyres, inflated to 26 p.s.i. back and front. 1968M. Woodhouse Rock Baby xviii. 183 She fitted a little pressure gauge to the drill-guide... The needle on the gauge flicked across at once, to nine p.s.i. 1975Offshore Engineer Sept. 44/1 Phillips has a contract with the British Gas Corporation (BGC) to meet the required amount per day at a specified pressure which is 1,000psi.
1951*psia [see isentropically adv. s.v. iso-]. 1975Petroleum Rev. XXIX. 91/1 The stabilised crude, with a vapour pressure of 5–7 psia, will be piped to the Greatham site.
1932Motor Transport 28 Mar. 351/3 A bus driver who was refused a *p.s.v. driving licence..has appealed with success to a bench of magistrates. 1944L. D. Kitchin Road Transport Law 9/2 Every p.s.v., except those first registered on or before January 1, 1932, must be capable of turning in a circle not exceeding 60ft. 1972Police Rev. 1 Dec. 1577/1 A licensed p.s.v. is not being used as a p.s.v. when it is not carrying passengers.
1922T. E. Lawrence Let. 1 Sept. (1938) 364 If I can get able to sleep, and to eat the food, and to go through the *P.T. I'll be all right. 1938Times 14 Feb. 10/4 A Half-Day Course in P.T. 1965W. Lamb Posture & Gesture viii. 107 If a woman she may be respected for her vigour but is too likely to be drained of feminine attractiveness—‘P.T. hag’ is the profession's own term. 1973M. Amis Rachel Papers 137 The Darwin-born PT instructress, on the other hand, her glossy shoulder-muscles rippling in the ninety-degree heat, threw her bulk round the court in frank virility.
1958People 4 May 2/1 (Advt.), Victor {pstlg}498 plus {pstlg}250 7s. *PT. 1963Which? Mar. 71/1 [Price] excluding 10 per cent P.T. 1966Punch 27 July 132/2 The Government's determination not to flinch, if necessary, from a ten per cent PT increase on musical instruments?
1925Kansas City (Missouri) Star 4 Feb. 11/1 (heading) *P.-T.-A. plans celebration. 1962L. Deighton Ipcress File xviii. 106 The old stuff about re-treads, P.T.A. meetings, and where to go for a good divorce. 1973J. Burrows Like an Evening Gone iv. 47 We're doing a P.T.A. play at the school. 1976Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. 1973 lx. 12 Mother of Informant 8. Active in church affairs and P.T.A.
1942*PT boat [see expendable a.]. 1961W. Vaughan-Thomas Anzio v. 67 On 28 January Clark himself, after being nearly killed on the deck of his PT boat, arrived at Anzio. 1974Lebende Sprachen XIX. 38/1 US PT boat—BE/US motor torpedo boat, BEa. E-boat. Schnellboot.
1932Blakeslee & Fox in Jrnl. Heredity XXIII. 97/1 The long name, phenyl-thio-carbamide, we are shortening to the nickname *P.T.C., an abbreviation which we shall use throughout this paper. Ibid. 98/1 To those who find P.T.C. strongly bitter, it seems incredible that any one could call it tasteless. 1965Punch 10 Nov. 688/1 Tallness, or colour-blindness, or the ability to taste the substance known as PTC (phenylthiocarbamide) are inherited. 1976PTC [see phenylthiocarbamide s.v. phenyl 2 b].
1909Army & Navy Gaz. 1 May 430/3 Foil v. Foil (*P.T.I's only). 1916‘Taffrail’ Pincher Martin iii. 45 The next turn was by the P.T.I. (Physical Training Instructor). 1964J. Hale Grudge Fight vi. 92 Buck Jones the P.T.I. 1968M. Woodhouse Rock Baby xxi. 202 He was wearing a sweatshirt and blue drill trousers, like a grossly overweight P.T.I. 1977R.A.F. News 11–24 May 2/4 There will also be a trampoline display by PTIs of the RAF.
1859Geo. Eliot Let. 24 Feb. (1954) III. 24 Yours ever truly George Eliot. *P.T.O. I have reopened my letter to ask you [etc.]. 1902H. G. Wells Let. 14 Feb. in A. Bennett & H. G. Wells (1960) 76 P.T.O. 1966Gurnett & Kyte Cassell's Dict. Abbrev. 172/2 P.T.O., Please Turn Over.
1951A. B. Lees Farming Machinery xv. 144 If *p.t.o.-driven trailers of compact design could be made available to hill farmers at an economic price they might well prove to be a major factor in increasing food production from marginal land. 1967Jane's Surface Skimmer Systems 1967–68 64/2 Air can be supplied from a PTO-driven blower mounted on the tractor unit. 1973Country Life 28 June 1904/2 The Bearcat combined roughage and grain grinder... Available as a pto driven static or trailed machine..[it] incorporates a pre-breaker with bevel edge.
1904Age (Melbourne) 20 May 1 (Advt.), Ball and Welch *Pty. Ltd. 1938Act (Victoria) 3 Geo. VI no. 4602, sect. xxvi, §5 The word ‘proprietary’ or the abbreviation thereof ‘Pty.’ shall form part of the name of a proprietary company. 1969Northern Territory News (Darwin) 11 July 4/3 (Advt.), N.T. Real Estate Pty. Ltd.
1934V. M. Yeates Winged Victory iii. ix. 365 ‘I wish you'd tell me what *PUO means.’ ‘What do you want to know that for?’ But the M.O. overcame his professional love of mystery, and added: ‘It stands for Pyrexia of Unknown Origin.’ 1964M. Hynes Med. Bacteriol. (ed. 8) xii. 192 A clinical diagnosis of typhoid is rarely possible in the early stages, and the patient will be investigated as a case of ‘P.U.O.’ or pyrexia of unknown origin. 1976Proc. R. Soc. Med. LXIX. 557/1, I..told him what a lot of interesting medical cases had come to the hospital under that useful army diagnosis of ‘PUO’—pyrexia of unknown origin.
1933C. Mackenzie Water on Brain viii. 112 ‘The *P.U.S.?’ ‘The Permanent Under-Secretary,’ Hunter-Hunt explained. 1974P. Gore-Booth With Great Truth & Respect 324 What governed the whole of my life in this final period was the circumstance that, apart from the Secretary of State, the PUS was the only person in the Office whose obligation it was to have some knowledge of everything.
1939London Weekly Advertiser 7 June 6/5, 35/- *P.W. Incl. 1968Punch 19 June 871/1 Let's be terribly sympathetic to the BOAC pilots, skilled, resourceful and too well-mannered actually to call their {pstlg}30 pw pay rise offer ‘insulting’, the vogue word for this sort of thing. 1975Irish Times 9 May 22/3 (Advt.), Rent inclusive of heating. {pstlg}10 p.w. 1976Burnham-on-Sea Gaz. 20 Apr. 7/7 (Advt.), I have sacked my advertising man. I have been paying him {pstlg}1.15 pw and what do I get.
1909Cent. Dict. Suppl., *P.W.D., an abbreviation of Public Works Department. 1922G. Bell Let. 17 July (1927) II. xxii. 645 Mr. Cooke, Major Wilson and I accepted the invitation of Sabih Bey, Minister of P.W.D., to bathe from his house in Muadhdham. 1958G. Durrell Encounters with Animals iv. 168 There was the little cockney P.W.D. man who..offered to drive me a hundred-odd miles, over atrocious African roads. 1971Illustr. Weekly India 11 Apr. 45/3 Those of a structural nature which the P.W.D. were able and willing to solve. 1975O. Sela Bengali Inheritance ix. 76 The flat was..originally built for European PWD engineers.
1954Mech. Engin. July 585/1 The Westinghouse Electric Corporation, as of July 1953, was assigned responsibility for the development and design of a pressurized light-water reactor (*PWR). 1976New Scientist 5 Aug. 290/2 PWRs are now better proven with a greater reliability than two years ago, and there are several large units now working in the US and West Germany.
1929Papers Mich. Acad. Sci., Arts & Lett. X. 317/1 *PX, post exchange. 1936Amer. Speech XI. 62 The army took avidly to the name canteen—so avidly that after..the stores were officially re-named ‘Post Exchanges’, the name persisted... Even the modernistic abbreviation ‘PX’ does not seem to displace it. 1959C. MacInnes Absolute Beginners 102 My ivy-league outfit a GI got for me last year from his PX. 1971M. McCarthy Birds of America 184 If I give him a divorce, they'll take away my PX card and my QC privileges. 1975Publishers Weekly 13 Jan. 59/1 Two American truck drivers get lost in Vietnam and take shelter in an abandoned supply depot that is still stocked with PX goodies like stereos, TVs and canned food.
1977Econ. Res. Ser. xxii. 17 Some American farmers rely very heavily on *p-y-o and 100% p-y-o farms have been planned. 1983Washington Post 1 June e13/1 It's strawberry season, and you can pick the fruits of the Schwartzes' labors at their Double-B Farms—one of more than 100 PYO farms in the Washington area. 1984Times 27 July 26/4 P-y-o strawberries this week are about 35p a lb.
b. Teleph. P = ‘private’ in PABX, private automatic branch exchange; PAX, private automatic exchange; PBX, private branch exchange; PMBX, private manual branch exchange.
1923P.O. Electr. Engineers' Jrnl. XV. 309 On P.A.B.X.'s a jack is provided on the manual board for every line. 1976Computing Europe 2 Sept. 5/2 Lines can be intercepted within buildings (particularly at PABXs or distribution boards) and even at Post Office telephone exchanges.
1923P.O. Electr. Engineers' Jrnl. XV. 315 These plants are in some cases working as single P.A.X.'s. 1974Ibid. Oct. 19 (Advt.), Pye Business Communications' capability in PAX and PABX telephone systems can improve the efficiency of your existing installation or provide you with a completely new system. 1976Eastern Even. News (Norwich) 9 Dec. 16/2 (Advt.), Norwich Airport has a vacancy for a temporary Clerk/Telephonist (part-time) involving manual operation of a small PABX switchboard, some simple accounts and typing.
1917G. D. Shepardson Telephone Apparatus xv. 253 The current through the talking subscriber's circuit experiences a considerable fall of potential due to the resistance in the trunk line between the control exchange battery and the P.B.X. board. 1940R. Chandler Farewell, my Lovely xxxii. 240 A uniformed man dozed behind a pint-sized PBX set into the end of a scarred wooden counter. 1958‘P. Bryant’ Two Hours to Doom 19 He lifted the phone to the PBX. 1976National Observer (U.S.) 10 Apr. 9/2 The FCC program, which takes effect Aug. 1 for the PBX, key, main, and coin telephones.
1932Herbert & Procter Telephony (ed. 2) I. xiv. 614 Lines terminating on a P.M.B.X. are connected to consecutive jacks. Ibid. 619 The P.M.B.X. operator withdraws the plug from the exchange line jack. 1975Post Office Electr. Engineers' Jrnl. LXVIII. 61/2 The PMBX No. 4 was originally designed to meet the requirements of single-position installations of up to 160 extensions.
c. p = pico-, as in pF, picofarad(s).
1940Chambers's Techn. Dict. 631/2 pF., pf., abbrev. for pico-farad. 1958Engineering 21 Feb. 228/2 The sensitivity of the Tektor Major is better than 1·0 pF under all conditions.
d. P = ‘poly-’ in PCB, polychlorinated biphenyl; PTFE, polytetrafluoroethylene; PVA, (a) polyvinyl acetate; (b) polyvinyl alcohol; PVC, polyvinyl chloride; PVP, polyvinylpyrrolidone. (All these often occur with full stops, and some are occas. given in lower case letters.)
1966New Scientist 15 Dec. 612/3 In Sweden, PCB is known to be used in electrical insulations, hydraulic oils, high-temperature and high-pressure lubricating oils, paints, lacquers and varnishes, and as pigments in various plastics. 1971Observer 12 Dec. 4/3 Levels of PCBs..are roughly 10 to 100 times higher in plankton from the open ocean than from coastal waters. 1974J. Burton Pollution v. 33 Thousands of seabirds died in the Irish Sea in 1969, and it is believed that PCB was responsible. 1977Jrnl. R. Soc. Arts CXXV. 240/1 Our wildlife has..been affected by the accumulation of the persistent organochlorine pesticides and by PCBs.
1949Electronic Engin. XXI. 220/1 Two new types of seals will shortly be available, one of which is made from an entirely new material, polytetrafluorethylene (P.T.F.E.). 1962Which? Aug. 255/1 There are two kinds of non-stick frying pans—those with a silicone finish and those with a plastic called polytetrafluoroethylene, or PTFE. 1973Materials & Technol. VI. viii. 545 Trade names of PTFE plastics include: Teflon (USA); Fluon (UK); and Hostaflon TF (Germany).
1943Simonds & Ellis Handbk. Plastics viii. 393 (table) Polyvinyl alcohol ‘PVA’ Resin. Ibid. 1007 (Gloss.) Trade name/PVA Type/Polyvinyl alcohol Typical applications/Tubing, rubber substitute (see Resistoflex). 1960Farmer & Stockbreeder 22 Mar. (Suppl.) 10/2 Again, modern materials come to the rescue, and this time it is the relatively new PVA (Polyvinyl acetate) emulsion. This is a synthetic resin which, when used in emulsion form and added to sand, cement, and certain aggregates, will give a jointless, waterproof floor. 1966A. W. Lewis Gloss. Woodworking Terms 38 Polyvinyl acetate (pva), emulsion glue of a white creamy consistency. It is used cold and does not require a hardener. 1969L. S. Mounts in W. R. R. Park Plastics Film Technol. v. 140 Three water soluble plastic films are currently produced from polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), methyl cellulose and polyethylene oxide. 197736 Home Handyman Projects (Austral. Home Jrnl.) 74/2 Cut thin strips of very thin felt and apply a PVA glue to one side of the felt.
1941Electronic Engin. XIV. 541/2 Polyvinyl chloride and copolymers. Examples—Welvic, B.X.P.'s, ‘P.V.C.’, Chlorovene. 1957Economist 12 Oct. 161/1 Similar plastic⁓coated steels, all using pvc, have been offered in the United States for some time. 1971New Scientist 10 June 630 The PVC-coated fabrics that have previously been the main synthetic material used in women's footwear. 1972Country Life 16 Mar. 612/1 Playing around with a few old bricks..and a cowl made of wire and pvc sacks. 1975W. G. Roberts Quest for Oil (rev. ed.) vii. 77 Plastics, particular examples being Polythene, polystyrene, PVC and a number of synthetic resins.
1951Lancet 19 May 1096/1 A Saline solution incorporating a p.v.p. compound was prepared and used in Germany with some success as a plasma substitute during the 1939–45 war. 1959Jrnl. Inst. Brewing LXV. 73/2 Beer can be chill-proofed, with⁓out risk of pasteurization haze, by adding PVP during storage in the cellar. 1966J. A. Brydson Plastics Materials xiv. 286 In the field of cosmetics p.v.p. is used because of its unique property of forming loose addition compounds with skin and hair. Hair lacquers may be formulated based on 4–6% p.v.p. in ethyl alcohol. 1974M. C. Gerald Pharmacol. ix. 164 The plasma substitutes, dextran and polyvinylpyrrolidone, PVP.
III. 1. P trap, a trap consisting of a U bend the upper part of whose outlet arm is bent horizontal or nearly so.
1885P. J. Davies Stand. Pract. Plumbing I. 103 Fig. 205 is the ordinary half {horizS}-trap, wrongly called {horizP}-trap. 1890W. R. Maguire Domestic San. Drainage vi. 206 No. 1 is the S-trap; No. 2, half S-trap; No. 3, P-trap. 1976R. Day All about Plumbing 64/1 In a ground floor w.c. it is usual to fit an S trap,..but in an upstairs floor w.c., a P trap is usually installed.
2. p or P (Physics and Chem.) = principal: orig. used to designate one of the four main series of lines in atomic spectra, but now more frequently applied to electronic orbitals, states, etc., possessing one unit of angular momentum.
1890J. R. Rydberg in Phil. Mag. XXIX. 335 A few examples will suffice to show the arrangement and the use of this system. K (D1, 4) denotes the fourth line of the first diffuse series of the spectrum of potassium..Rb (P12, 2) the second doublet of the principal group of Rb [etc.]. 1910[see F III. 1 j]. 1922,1955[see D III. 3 b]. 1964J. W. Linnett Electronic Struct. Molecules ii. 29 In the oxygen atom two 2p orbitals are half-filled..and so..bonds can be formed to two hydrogen atoms.
3. [initial letter of primary.] Used, chiefly in P wave, to denote an earthquake wave of alternate compression and rarefaction (the faster of the two main kinds of wave transmitted through the earth).
1908C. G. Knott Physics Earthquake Phenomena xi. 199 Although Rebeur Paschwitz had suggested the possibility, Oldham, of the Geological Survey of India, was the first clearly to establish the existence in the complete record of two distinct phases in the Preliminary Tremors. These will be distinguished as P and S. Ibid. xii. 225 (heading) Chordal and arcual speeds of P and S phases of preliminary tremors in earth-radius per minute. 1936V. B. Macelwane in Macelwane & Sohon Introd. Theoret. Seismol. I. ix. 248 When it became clear that the P-waves were of the condensation-rarefaction type and the S-waves of the shear type, and individual earthquakes had been observed at a sufficient number of stations, attempts were made to draw up time—distance curves for the arrival times and to correlate these with the time of occurrence of the earthquake. 1966McGraw-Hill Encycl. Sci. & Technol. XII. 152/1 The seismic body waves (P, S, and composite types like PS) have predominant periods in the range 1–15 sec, with P and S, respectively, at the short-period and long-period end of this range. 1971I. G. Gass et al. Understanding Earth iii. 54/1 The core-mantle boundary is marked by an abrupt reduction in the velocity of compressional or P earthquake waves.
4. On the analogy of pH, used to denote the negative of the common logarithm of a concentration or activity expressed in moles per litre; similarly pK, the negative of the common logarithm of a dissociation constant; pF (see quot. 1971).
1924N. H. Furman in H. S. Taylor Treat. Physical Chem. II. xiii. 828 By graphic interpolation, plotting—log k against pOH, we find pOH to be 5·1. 1929H. T. S. Britton Hydrogen Ions iii. 43 The hydrogen-ion concentration has a pH value of ½pKw at neutrality. 1935R. K. Schofield in Trans. 3rd Internat. Congr. Soil Sci. II. 39 It has proved convenient to use a new scale, which I have called the pF scale, to express what has, in the previous pages, been called ‘suction’... The symbol ‘p’ expresses its logarithmic character, while the symbol ‘F’ is intended to remind us that by defining pF as the logarithm of the height in centimetres of the water column needed to give the suction in question, we are really using the logarithm of a free energy difference measured on a gravity scale. 1946Lutz & Chandler Forest Soils ix. 292 Designation of the energy relations of soil water in terms of pF is analogous to specification of reaction in terms of pH. 1965R. G. Kazmann Mod. Hydrol. v. 141 The energy gradient of the soil (pF) works against the force of gravity. 1968Passmore & Robson Compan. Med. Stud. I. vi. 5/2 In a solution containing a mixture of buffers the conjugate acid base ratio is determined at any pH by its pK. 1971Gloss. Soil Sci. Terms (Soil Sci. Soc. Amer.) 12/2 pF (obsolete), the logarithm of the soil moisture tension expressed in centimeters height of a column of water. 1972Wastewater Engin. (Metcalf & Eddy, Inc.) vii. 255 With pOH, which is defined as the negative logarithm of the hydroxyl-ion concentration, it can be seen..that, for water at 25°C, pH + pOH = 14. 1973F. G. Shinskey pH & pIon Control in Process & Waste Streams i. 4 Increasing activity is indicated by a decreasing pIon.
5. P-marker (Linguistics) = phrase-marker (phrase n. 7).
1955N. Chomsky Theory of Linguistic Struct. (microfilm, Mass. Inst. Technol.) x. 735 We define ‘K is the P-marker of Z’ as: K is the set of strings which appear as a line of one of the members of E, where E is an equivalence class of S1-derivations of Z. 1963Chomsky & Miller in R. D. Luce et al. Handbk. Math. Psychol. II. 301 A grammatical transformation, then, is a mapping of P-markers into P-markers. 1964E. Bach Introd. Transformational Gram. iii. 39 A representation of immediate constituent structure for a string, such as is given by a labeled bracketing or labeled tree, is called a phrase marker (P marker). 1967D. G. Hays Introd. Computational Linguistics xiii. 210 The parser would..submit, to a higher level source-language processor or to a translator, base P-markers—constituency diagrams with all transformations undone. 1976Language LII. 110 A successful asymmetrical derivation rule must operate on a P-marker and not on an individual lexical entry.
6. [repr. proton.] p-process (Astr.): a process believed to occur in stars by which heavy proton-rich nuclei are formed from other nuclei, esp. in circumstances of high proton flux such as may obtain in supernovae.
1956F. Hoyle et al. in Science 5 Oct. 613/3 At such temperatures (p, γ) reactions occur in a time of the order of 10 seconds, even on the heaviest nuclei (p-process). 1957Rev. Mod. Physics XXIX. 617/2 It is probable that the maximum number of protons which can be added to C12 through the duration of the p process is only two. 1977J. Narlikar Struct. Universe ii. 50 Apart from these two processes there is a rarer process which produces proton-rich isotopes by exposing the r-process and s-process material to a fast flux of protons or of high⁓energy photons. This is known as the p-process.
Add:[II.] P.C.P., Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia.
1975Jrnl. Amer. Med. Assoc. 17 Mar. 1168/2 One of the worst, fastest-moving, and cruelest killers of children is Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (*PCP). 1988Amer. Jrnl. Nursing Aug. 1126/1 Pentamidine isethionate has been used since 1941 to treat trypanosomal diseases... But it only became widely available in the United States in 1984, when it was found to be somewhat effective in treating Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP).
PINC, Pinc, pinc (also with pronunc. pɪŋk), property income certificate.
1986Estates Gaz. 28 June 1470/4 Property Income Certificates—*PINCs for short—are a completely new investment vehicle and would require setting up a special market to trade in the units. 1988Daily Tel. 13 Sept. 26/1 Taylor Woodrow's decision to take profits from its St Katharine's Dock development, by offering the World Trade Centre building for unitisation through property income certificates (pincs) has surprised many in the City.
P.–K., P.K. (Med.), Prausnitz–Küstner; usu. attrib. (see *Prausnitz–Küstner n.).
1938G. C. Andrews Dis. Skin (ed. 2) ii. 43 The *P.–K. test is not positive by any means in all instances of allergy, nor for all allergens. 1963Times 23 Apr. 15/4 Forty years later modern science has still been unable to find other methods to characterize allergic antibodies. Medical students the world over learn about the Prausnitz–Küstner, or as it is usually abbreviated the PK reaction. 1983Allergy XXXVIII. 171/2 The P–K test results.
[III.] 7. p-code (Computing) = pseudocode s.v. pseudo- 2; sometimes also explained as ‘Pascal code’ (see Pascal n. 3).
1974PASCAL Newslet. Jan., in SIGPLAN Notices Mar. 25 The PASCAL-P system is a compiler which generates code (so-called P-code) for a simple, hypothetical stack computer. 1984Austral. Personal Computer Apr. 167 (Advt.), Native machine code (not slow p-code), which runs faster than anything yet seen. 1985Personal Computer World Feb. 161/2 This language, Pascal, became widely known and used, thanks mainly to the portable so-called p-Code (Pascal code) implementations. 1985Practical Computing May 71/3 The programs were first compiled to p-code, and then further compiled to the native code and run.
Add:[II.] [a.] PC, pc, politically correct; political correctness.
1986N.Y. Times 11 May vi. 39/2 There's too much emphasis on being *P.C.—politically correct. 1989Independent 11 Nov. (Weekend section) 34/5 We thought we'd be accused of not being pc—politically correct. 1992Economist 18 Jan. 44/2 Subjects like science and engineering where the ravages of PC are unknown (or, at least, rare).
PCNA Biochem., proliferating cell nuclear antigen; orig. called cyclin (*cyclin n. 1).
1978Jrnl. Immunol. CXXI. 2233/1 All these lines of evidence suggest that the nuclear antigen reacting with the newly identified antibody is an antigen associated with proliferating cells. Therefore, it is suggested that this antibody might be termed antibody to proliferating cell nuclear antigen (*PCNA). 1990Nucleic Acids Res. XVIII. 261/1 PCNA, or cyclin..is a known cofactor of DNA polymerase d in in vitro replication of SV40 DNA.
PET, polyethylene terephthalate.
1966Trans. Faraday Soc. LXII. 1321 The β relaxation in amorphous polyethylene terephthalate (*PET) was chosen. Ibid. 1323 Both samples were cut from the same sheet of PET. 1982Times 13 Dec. 15/2 Half a dozen brewers are already trying out PET packaging for their beers. 1991Garbage Jan.–Feb. 35/1 The..facility, capable of recycling 24 million pounds of PET a year, was an investment of $3.3 million.
PET = positron emission tomography s.v. *positron n. 2.
[1975M. M. Ter-Pogossian et al. in Radiol. CXIV. 90/2 We call this apparatus a positron emission transaxial tomograph (PETT).] 1979Brain Res. (Reviews) CLXXX. 48 The concept of positron emission tomography (*PET). 1993Chicago Tribune 13 Apr. i. 4/6 Using PET scans..to follow the brain's consumption of sugar..he measured the activity level of brains at all ages.
PTSD = post-traumatic stress disorder s.v. *post-traumatic a. 2.
1982Southern Med. Jrnl. LXXV. 704/2 It should be noted that PTSD can occur as a result of any severe trauma, such as rape or an automobile accident, and not necessarily from combat. 1993Men's Health Jan.–Feb. 75/2 Gilkin's PTSD symptoms struck him earlier and harder than Michael Hall's. He suffered dizzy spells..and flashbacks.
PVS Med., persistent vegetative state.
1985Arch. Neurol XLII. 1045/1 The clinical syndrome of *PVS has been described in patients who survive severe traumatic and non-traumatic brain damage without improvement in mental function. Ibid. Electroencephalograms were normal in three patients with PVS. 1996Independent 24 Jan. ii. 28/4 13 Nov. 26/1 Now many patients who, 20 years ago, would have died quick and painless deaths, linger on in PVS.
PWA, person with Aids.
1986Guardian Weekly 26 Jan. 12/1 He found a place to live thanks to the Shanti Project, a charity subsidised by the municipality to help PWAs. It makes houses available to Aids victims. 1992Out (N.Y.) Summer No. 1. 29/2 Aerosolized pentamidine is now a standard prophylactic treatment for what was then the No. 1 killer of PWAs.
▸ PB n. (also pb) N. Amer. colloq. peanut butter (recorded earliest in PBJ n.).
1976Progress Rev. (Park City, Iowa) 1 Sept. 11/4 School lunch menu... Mashed potato, creamed beef, green beans, peach sauce, *PB sandwich, milk. 2001Organic Style Sept.–Oct. 31/1 My mass-market PB habit (and the guilt that went along with it) were gone the moment I tasted Whole Kids Organic Peanut Butter.
▸ PB & J n. (also P.B. and J., PB and J, P.B. & J. and with lower-case initials) N. Amer. colloq. peanut butter and jelly; (also) a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
1973Times Recorder (Zanesville, Ohio) 16 Aug. 3 c/5 Many mothers work and must leave a snack in the refrigerator, *PB and J being the easiest. 1997B. Witt Pan-Asian Express xi, It's as inevitable as p.b. & j. on a croissant and as imminent as virtual reality. 2004J. Patterson & D. Campbell Cooking outside Pizza Box iv. 56/1 Even if you've never made anything more complicated than PB&J, you'd be surprised at how easy it is to put together a decent meal.
▸ PBJ n. (also pbj) N. Amer. colloq. = PB & J n.
1971Post-Standard (Syracuse, N.Y.) 9 Mar. 5/5 No more *PBJ sandwiches. 2002St. Louis (Missouri) Post-Dispatch (Nexis) 17 Dec. Devotees of Head's featured lunch item—pbj on white—should be prepared for a menu change. 2003N.Y. Times (National ed.) 8 June iv. 5/6 (caption) My mother made PBJ's with Jif [peanut butter], and out of necessity, I came to like it.
▸ PCR n. Molecular Biol. = polymerase chain reaction n. at polymerase n. Compounds.
1985R. K. Saiki et al. in Science 20 Dec. 1350/3 The β-globin segment was amplified by the polymerase chain reaction (*PCR) procedure of Mullis and Faloona. 1995L. Garrett Coming Plague 661 The strain of HIV found in Acer's blood could be ‘fingerprinted’ using PCR. 1999New Scientist 28 Aug. 55/1 (advt.) Serial isolates from individual horses and naturally occurring outbreaks of lower airway disease will be typed by PCR tests.
▸ PDA n. Computing = personal digital assistant n. at personal adj. and n. and adv. Special uses.
1992PR Newswire (Nexis) 9 Jan. The transformation from analog to digital technologies opens the possibility for a wide range of potentially very innovative and useful devices that we [sc. Apple Computer Inc.] are calling generically Personal Digital Assistants (*PDAs). 1999Independent 10 Nov. i. 6 (advt.) It has everything you'd expect from a PDA..such as diary, contacts, HTML web browser, and synchronisation with your PC. 2001Contact May 33/1 Wireless packs—coming this summer—will turn your PDA into a mobile phone.
▸ PET n. (also Pet, pet) Brit. Finance = potentially exempt transfer n. at potentially adv. Compounds.
1986Guardian 26 Apr. 26/2 Providing the transferer survives the *PET by seven years, no tax liability will arise. 2002Which? Tax Saving Guide 60/3 On your death, all Pets and other taxable lifetime gifts you made in the previous seven years are treated as part of your estate.
▸ PLC n. Computing and Manuf. Technol. = programmable logic controller n. at programmable adj. and n. Special uses.
1974Control & Instrumentation Mar. 28 (title) *PLC principle allows for a change in the control system. 2004M. Amin in R. Zimmerman & T. Horan Digital Infrastructures viii. 122 PLCs have been used extensively in manufacturing and process industries for many years.
▸ PMS n. Med. = premenstrual syndrome n. at premenstrual adj. Special uses.
1976Lancet 25 Sept. 654/1 Serum-prolactin was measured by radioimmunoassay during the menstrual cycle in 28 women who had the premenstrual syndrome (*P.M.S.). 1990Pract. Health Spring 37/2 Women may be affected by their menstrual cycle, headaches often being part of PMS and menopausal symptoms. 2001New Scientist 27 Jan. 21/1 The dried extract of the fruit of the chaste tree (Vitex agnus castus) greatly reduces PMS symptoms such as depression, mood swings, headaches and sore breasts.
▸ PMT n. Med. (chiefly Brit.) = premenstrual tension n. at premenstrual adj. Special uses.
1978A. Phillips & J. Rakusen Our Bodies Ourselves (ed. 2) vii. 173 For period pains uncomplicated by *PMT, combined contraceptive pills can be an answer because they can suppress ovulation. 1980Obstetr. & Gynecol. 56 723/1 Previous studies suggest an association between prolactin and the premenstrual tension syndrome (PMT). 1999P. Agbabi in S.-J. Lovett Oral Poems 2 But I only see red Coz I'm feeling rather freaky When it comes to having PMT No woman can beat me I'm speedy I'm angry I'm horny I'm stoned I want to be touched And I wanna be left alone.
▸ ppt n. parts per thousand.
1946Biol. Bull. 90 247 The salinity of the water ranged from 27.31 *p.p.t. soon after high water to 25.45 p.p.t. at low water. 1997G. S. Helfman et al. Diversity of Fishes xvii. 313/1 Some desert pupfishes can tolerate salinities over 100 parts per thousand (ppt) and as high as 140 ppt, three to four times that of seawater.
▸ ppt n. parts per trillion (1012).
1964Limnol. & Oceanogr. 9 310 Toxaphene ranged from 7 to 410 parts per trillion (*ppt). 1993Canad. Geographic July–Aug. 14/1 Near a pulp mill at Crofton on Vancouver Island, dioxin levels in eggs from a heronry dropped from 209 ppt in 1987 to 19.4 ppt last year.
▸ PPV n. Broadcasting (orig. U.S.) = pay-per-view n. and adj. at pay v.1 Compounds 2.
1982Variety 24 Mar. 273/4 (heading) Oak Media-backed *PPV Company plans to offer satellite concerts to colleges; hardware is free. 2000Independent (Electronic ed.) 19 Oct. The restrictions imposed by the Premier League would have prevented ntl from using PPV as a free incentive to induce subscribers to sign up to cable packages.
▸ PRC n. the People's Republic of China.
1956Jrnl. Politics 18 520 The Constitution of the People's Republic of China was adopted on September 20, 1954, by the first National People's Congress (NPC) of the People's Republic of China (*PRC) at its first session. 2000T. Clancy Bear & Dragon xx. 293 He handed her a Bible printed in the Gouyu, the national language of the PRC (also called Mandarin), and helped her find appropriate passages. |