pettegrye, ‘pedigree’. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 386. See Dict.
petternel, a ‘petronel’, horse-pistol. Return from Parnassus, i. 2 (Judicio). Hence, petronellier, a soldier armed with a petrenel; Gascoigne, Weeds, ed. Hazlitt, i. 408. See Dict. (s.v. Petronel).
petun, tobacco. Taylor’s Works, 1630 (Nares). F. petun, a native South American name of tobacco (a Guarani word); see NED.; ‘Petum femelle, English Tobacco; Petum masle, French Tobacco’ (Cotgr.). See Stanford.
pewl, to cry as a babe; ‘Here pewled the babes’, Sackville, Induction, st. 74. See Dict. (s.v. Pule).
pex, for pax. Warner, Alb. England, bk. vi, ch. 31, st 16. See [pax].
pheare, a common spelling of [fere], q.v. Two Noble Kinsmen, v. 2. 122; pheer, Marmion, The Antiquary, i. 1 (Gasparo).
pheeze; see [feeze].
phenicopter, a flamingo. Nabbes, Microcosmus, iii. 1 (Sensuality). Gk. φοινικ- (from φοῖνιξ), crimson, and πτερόν, feather. Spelt phœnicopterus, Sir T. Browne, Vulgar Errors, bk. iii, c. 12 (near the end).
philander, a lover, one given to making love to a lady, a male flirt. Congreve, Way of the World, v. 1 (Lady Wishfort); Tatler, no. 13, § 1. This word for a lover became fashionable through the popularity of a Ballad of 1682 about ‘the Fair Phillis’ and her ‘Philander’; see NED. The Greek word ‘Philander’ was misunderstood as meaning a loving man, but φίλανδρος was used originally of a woman, one loving her husband.
Philip, a familiar name for a sparrow. King John, i. 231; Middleton, The Widow, iii. 2 (Violetta). See Nares. Still in use in Cheshire and Northants (EDD.). See [Phip].