penny-father, a miser, skinflint. Two Angry Women, ii. 1 (Philip); ‘Nigeshe penny fathers’, More’s Utopia (ed. Lumby, 102). Hence the surname Pennyfather; see Bardsley’s English Surnames, 482.
pensel, a pennon, little banner. Morte Arthur, leaf 244, back, 12; bk. x, c. 43; ‘Pensell, a lytell baner, banerolle’, Palsgrave. Anglo-F. pencel (Didot); OF. penoncel (La Curne). Med. L. penuncellus (Ducange).
pentagoron, a pentagram, a mysterious cabalistic figure supposed to have great magical power. Rowley, Birth of Merlin, v. 1. 49; pentageron, Greene, Friar Bacon, i. 2. 222. Properly pentagonon. Gk. πεντάγωνος, pentagonal, having five angles.
†pentweezle, a term of abuse. Massinger, The Old Law, iii. 2. (Lysander).
pepper: phr. to take pepper in the nose, to take offence, to be vexed. Middleton and Rowley, Spanish Gipsy, iv. 3. 10; Lyly, Euphues, pp. 118, 375. See Nares.
†peppernel, a bump or swelling. Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of the B. Pestle, ii. 2 (Wife). Not found elsewhere.
percase, perchance. Bacon, Colours of Good and Evil, § 3. See Nares.
perceiverance, mental perception. Middleton, The Widow, iii. 2 (Violetta). See Nares.
perche, to pierce. Ascham, Toxophilus, 137, 138. In prov. use in the north, esp. in Yorks., also in Lincoln, see EDD. (s.v. Pearch). ME. perchyn, ‘perforare’ (Prompt. EETS. 44, see note, no. 208); perche, ‘to Thirle’ (Cath. Angl.). Norm. F. percher, ‘percer’ (Moisy).
perchmentier, a maker or seller of parchment. Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 1095.