place: Used objectively without a preposition, or even adverbially, a provincialism common in parts of the United States; as, “She is always wanting to go places”; “Can’t I go any place (correctly anywhere)?” “I must go some place (somewhere)”; “I can’t find it any place.” Such forms are solecisms.
place, plaice: Homophones, so care should be exercised in their use and spelling. A place is a particular point or portion of space; a plaice is a fish.
plank: Used usually with “down” this term is commonly employed by persons careless of their diction for “pay out” or “lay down”: said especially of money, and a term to be avoided.
plead, pleaded or pled, pleading: The spelling of pled for the past is not warranted, and is a colloquialism. Careful speakers use pleaded.
pleasure is distinguished from happiness, although in common conversation the terms are frequently used as if they were synonymous. “By happiness,” says Hamilton, “is meant the complement of all the pleasures of which we are susceptible.” Crabb says, “Happiness comprehends that aggregate of pleasurable sensations which we derive from external objects”: it is “a condition in which pleasure predominates over pain or evil; a continued experience of pleasures and joys.” “Pleasure is the accompaniment of the moderate and suitable activity of some organ or faculty of the mind.”
plentiful. Compare [BOUNTIFUL].
plenty: The colloquialism by which plenty, which is a noun, is treated as an adjective or adverb is altogether inadmissible. In such cases plentiful and plentifully should be used. “We have plenty of money.” “Cash is plentiful.” “We are plentifully supplied”—not “We have plenty enough cash.”
plunk: A vulgarism for a silver dollar.
polite, civil, polished: Civil, from the Latin civilis, from civis, a citizen, denotes that which is becoming to a citizen. Polite is the Latin politus, participle of polio, polish. Civility is therefore negative, the mere absence of rudeness, whereas politeness is the positive evidence of good breeding. A polite man is naturally so, but a polished man is one who has, by art, acquired the smoothness which comes of having had the rough edges rubbed off. Polite denotes a quality; polished denotes a state.
politics is a singular word of plural form. “His hobby is politics”—not “Politics are his hobby.”