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Thursday, June 13, 2013

P Words

P


Pa

One day I asked of my Ma,
"Have you seen my dear old Pa?"
By which I meant the man who is my dad.
She then looked thoughtfully at me
And said, "I have actually
During the greatest trip I ever had!"

Of course I was a tad confused
By the reply of my amused
Mother who proceeded then to say,
"I saw a Pa in New Zealand,
In the past you understand,
Whilst I traveled back in time last May!

"And there I saw a great hill fort
Built by the old Maori sort
A settlement terraced and fortified,
It was complete with palisades
Of wooden stakes those people made
To keep their loved ones safe and sound inside."

"No!" I interrupted Ma,
"I meant the man who is my Pa!"
To which she sighed and rolled her eyes at me,
"I'll get to that," she simply said
But told me something else instead,
"The letters found in 'Pa" happen to be...

"The letters used to symbolize
An element," she emphasized,
"One that is called protactinium,"
"Which is of course the element
That on the chart is resident
Between Uranium and Thorium..."

"But what about my Pa?" I cried.
She said I would do well if I'd
Speak to her whilst using a PA,
Speakers and a microphone
Both of which I did not own
Neither relevant to my dismay!

But just before I tried to ask
Again out came another blast
Of useless and unwanted trivia
It seemed that 'P' followed by 'A'
Is a shorter way to say
Or refer to Pennsylvania!

She told me that in the UK
A 'P' that's written with an 'A'
Means 'per annum' and she was insistent
It also commonly refers
To someone who often serves
As a person's personal assistant!

And then came wave upon a wave
Of the abbreviations made
Out of poor old P and poor old A
Upon my ear my Ma impressed
That PA meant 'public address'
I worried now that we'd be here all day!

Whilst like an old town crier
She spoke of power amplifiers;
The concept of power of attorney;
Press agents as well and more;
I started toward the front door
But I fear she simply followed me...

And spoke of 'purchasing agents'
And neither was she ignorant
Of 'professional association'
I quickly made a mental note
That after this I'd buy a boat
And go on one heck of a long vacation!

And last of all she told me how
PA stands for a Pascal
Being the SI unit of pressure
That of course is equal to
(I can't believe she actually knew!)
No more than one newton per square metre!

And finally she stopped to breathe
And gave my ears a brief reprieve
During which I tentatively said,
"Mum, dear Mum don't make me mad,
But where the blinken heck is dad?"
"Oh!" she said, "He's out back in the shed!"


Pabulum
Food that is easy to chew
And that will go straight through you
Can be designated pabulum,

But another denotation
Is insipid information
Mental fodder bland and trite and dumb!
what is pabulum? what is the definition of pabulum? what does pabulum mean?

Pacé

If you need a polite way
To disagree with someone say
This word that is said like this - “Pah-chay”

As in “Pacé Professor D
I have found actually
That crackers are much nicer with pate!”


Pandionine

There is a bird called an osprey
The Fish Eagle, or so they say,
That hunts for fish because it's so inclined.

So anything you might describe
As osprey-like you might subscribe
To the adjective pandionine!


Paul

I know man 10 inches high
He is the tiniest wee guy
And strangely answers to the name of Paul

Strange because in old Latin
Paul matches the state he's in
It being a name that means the same as "small."



Parenthesis

I saw the word parenthesis
And pondered about what this is
It turns out it can be one of two things:
A word or phrase inserted in,
By way of an explanation,
A passage in between those bracket things - ( )

Or between some dashes too (-)
Or betwixt commas one and two (, ,)
Not affecting the grammar at all.
However it can also be
A break or pause apparently,
An interlude or even interval!


Pariah

Once a girl call Mariah
Became sadly a pariah
On account of her gross stinky feet
A social outcast she became
Because the smell was less than tame
Like vinegar and something sickly sweet

That’s not to say she had become
A person who would bang on drums
In Ancient times in Southern India
A person of a low caste who
Played for ritualistic dos
Also known to be a pariah!

Parturition


It is a rather painful mission
The circumstance of parturition
That is to say the act of giving birth

That being said we are lucky
That there’s such a thing or we
Would find ourselves with an empty earth!
what is the meaning of parturition? what does parturition mean? what is the definition of parturition?

Peradventure

It’s not much of a venture
To define peradventure
For its meaning is simply “perhaps”,
As in this statement I could make:
“Peradventure when I bake
I should wear a hair net or a cap?”

Or “Peradventure when my cat
Brings to me another rat
I could make a rather unique cake
One that doesn’t taste as nice
As the one I made of mice
But peradventure nicer than dead snake?”


Perambulate

Once when walking down the road
Whilst on my way to my abode
I figured I needed a quick short cut,
So I decided I would go
Perambulate through a meadow
And walked across it with a fearless strut!

Alas the owner of the land
Did not like my lazy plan
And came out to me waving a sharp hoe
And said, "How dare you walk across
My land of which I am the boss!"
And then alas he would not let me go

Home until it was quite late
For we did perambulate
Every inch of land he called his own,
Just to make it clear to me
The limits of his boundary
Until finally he sent me home!

Perchance


One day a certain circumstance
Might lead you to the word “perchance
And you might well wonder what it means

So I'm here to tell you that
The word “Perchance” does mean “perhaps”
And also “possibly” if you so deem.
what is the meaning of perchance? what does perchance mean? what is the definition of perchance?



Perdition

To be in the position
Of one who’s in perdition
Means that you’re not doing all too well,

For a start you’d be quite dead,
For forever it is said,
Being punished for all your sins in Hell!



Peregrination

I went upon a quest to find
The partner to a sock of mine
Which turned into a long peregrination,

Indeed it was a great journey,
Meander and an odyssey
A time consuming fruitless exploration!


Peri (Prefix)

To add the essence of "About"
The prefix is PERI
As in pericarp or periderm
Or perinatology!



Pernicious

Something that is dangerous
Harmful or injurious
Like a great white shark hungry and vicious
Or perhaps a tiger who
Escaped and ate a man or two
Demonstrate the meaning of pernicious

However in archaic days
The word pernicious did convey
Something that was evil or quite bad
Like the Danish Queen who wed
Her husband’s murderer and said,
“Look Hamlet, I’ve found you a new Dad!”
what does pernicious mean? what is the meaning of pernicious? what is the definition of pernicious? Pernicious in a sentence

Peroration

I went to church on Sunday where
There was a fellow speaking there
Bellowing a loud and grand oration

The congregation were impressed
By his eloquent address
And cheered when he finished his peroration!




If algae is a thing that you
Want to incorporate
Into a word insert PHYCO
Into the word to make
A word that does imbue algae
As in phycology,
The definition of which being
The study of algae!
Originating from phykos
A Greek word it's agreed
Which translated simply means
Nothing less than seaweed!


Plausive

If you find me in a state
Of mind that makes me adulate
Expressing to you approval and praise

The mood I’m in is one conducive
To one that is indeed plausive
Although a word not much in use these days!
 what does the word plausive mean? what is the meaning of plausive? what rhymes with plausive? what is the definition of plausive? poems about the word plausive, the best poem in the world

Ply

If I was to come at this
Poem with a relentless
Diligence as I tapped on the keys
Wielding wildly my words out
As if my finger tips could shout
You could say of me I’m plying these keys

And if I practised and performed
And worked my skill despite my yawns
Meticulously and with industry
By this type of keen trying
I show that I’m indeed plying
My trade and skill most assiduously

And if you had a deep set need
To feast upon sunflower seed
And I was the one who could provide
An endless flow of it to you
A great amount for you to chew
You could say the seed from me was plied

And if I had a little boat
Within which I liked to float
Often back and forth upon a river
You could say of my small craft
Whether it’s a yacht or raft
That my vessel plies upon the river

And if it could be said of you
That you often travelled through
Or if you often travelled on or over
Then I would be lying
If I said that you weren't plying
as you travelled through or on or over!

And If I got some yarn or twine
And made some of it to unwind
Just so I could point out to your eye
That this component of string
Is in actual fact a thing
That also is known by the word ply!

Also don’t you think it’s good
There is a manufactured wood
When thin sheets are pressed tightly together
This wood is to you and I
Known as, you guessed it, ply
And is I think rather useful and clever!

And if I have a certain bent
A bias that I won’t relent
If I have a stubborn inclination
You could say of me that I
Have indeed taken a ply!
Thus bringing this poem to its cessation.


Pneum- / Pneuma- / Pneumat- (Prefixes)


To install into a word
"gas" and also "air"
Or to associate it with
"Lungs" or "breathing" hear
Me tell you now that PNEUM will do
Just exactly that
PNEUMA too, by gosh it's true
And also will PNEUMAT!
Place them in front of a word
To put those concepts in it
But also know it comes from the
Greek word meaning "Spirit".

Polygon


Hopefully it won't take long
To point out that a decagon
Is a certain type of polygon
A ten angled and sided shape
Quite unlike one that has eight
Or else it would then be an octagon

And while all of us are on
The hot topic of polygons
We might as well go through the other lot
Like the quadrilateral
A square, rhombus or rectangle
With no more than the four sides that it’s got

And some would get rather annoyed
If I left out trapezoid
Or the simple diamond shape of kites
Or the parallelogram
Something else you also can
Call a quadrilateral if you like

Oh the list goes on and on
There’s the five sided pentagon
As well as the six sided Hexagon
The Heptagon has seven
That’s four less than eleven
And finally nine for the nonagon!

And lastly let us look and see
Shapes made up of only three
Sides to them and only of three angles
Being the shape commonly called
By the name that’s known to all
As the simple three sided triangle

The list goes on and on and on
There’s just too many polygons
Way too many that I care to write!
I could say hendecagon
Has one less side than dodecagon
And more but it would take me most the night!


Post- Epi- /  (Prefixes)

To give a word the nuance of
Something "additional"
Simply add the word EPI
As in "epithelial".

Or if a thing is "after" then
Add POST or maybe EPI
As seen in the word "Postmodern"
Or "Epistemology".


Prenominate


Here’s a word not often heard
An out of date transitive verb
Meaning to mention something beforehand.
That word being prenominate
Which as I said is out of date
And from English seems to have been canned.

You might be tempted then to ask
Why be burdened with the task
Of learning such a useless word is that?
I guess because one day you might
Read a play by the playwright
Who put it into Hamlet’s second act!

And so seeing as I have your ear
Allow me to insert in there
That as an adjective it should be said
That though we don’t now use this word
Another word these days is heard
And so we use “aforementioned” instead!
what is the meaning of prenominate? what does prenominate mean? What is the meaning of prenominate?


Pro- (Prefix)

If something is to act in place
Of something or someone
Insert PRO before the word
And the job is done.


Proclivity

There is a situation
When one has an inclination
Toward something perhaps they shouldn’t do
A bad predisposition
For habitual perdition
I’m sure deep down most of us have a few

Perhaps you find you pick your nose
Or frequently play with your toes
Not once not twice but quite consistently
Whatever the propensity
One’s not so wholesome tendency
Is what we know as a proclivity!
What does proclivity mean? what is the meaning of proclivity? What is the definition of proclivity?

Perfidy

If someone has the tendency
To exhibit disloyalty
Unfaithfulness or infidelity

They're guilty then of perfidy
The opposite of loyalty
And bear the quality of treachery.




Prefixes and Suffixes

A prefix is a little word
Or "affix" it is said
Added to a bigger word
To make another word instead.

But if you like you can affix
A small word at the end
This is called a suffix which
Does new meaning lend.



Purloin

If you were to trust me with
A shoe or say your favourite sieve
Or even with a rare and precious coin

And if I then abused your trust
And stole it in my greedy lust
That thing becomes something that I've purloined!



Pusillanimous

There's not a thing that's glamorous
About being pusillanimous
For it is the state of being wimpy

A spineless wuss, a scardycat
A gutless lilly livered sap,
Or someone best described as cowardly.


Pygmalion

In the stories of the Greeks,
The ancient ones now quite antique,
Is found the fiction of a Cyprian
A sculptor who was not impressed
With the women of Cypress
Known by the name Pygmalion.

So fed up was he that he
Carved a girl from Ivory
Who was so fair to look at that the man
Found himself falling into
The place where love turns you into
A stew of boiling hormones in a pan.

So in love with her was he
The one they called Aphrodite
Took pity on this lonely human being
And granted his romantic wish
By turning his ivory dish
Into a real lass alive and breathing!

As far as I can tell the man
Soon gave her a wedding band
And happily thereafter they so bred
How lucky for Pygmalion
It never did occur to him
To carve himself an ugly girl instead!








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