pylery hole, the hole through which the head of the offender was thrust in the pillory. Skelton, Magnyf. 361. OF. pillorie (Ducange, s.v. Pilorium), O. Prov. espilori, espitlori (Levy); Med. L. *spect’lorium < *spectaculorium, a place for a ‘spectacle’ (L. spectaculum).
pyonyng; see [pion].
pyromancy, divination by fire. Greene, Friar Bacon, i. 2 (186); scene 2. 15 (W.); p. 155, col. 1 (D.). Gk. πυρομαντεία, divination by fire.
Pythonissa, the witch of Endor; ‘Saith the Pythonissa to Saul’, Bacon, Essay 35. L. pythonissa, applied to the witch of Endor (1 Sam. xxviii), see Vulgate, Lib. 1 Regum xxviii, Argument (‘Saul pythonissam consulit’); properly, a woman possessed with Python, the spirit of divination, cp. Vulgate, Lib. 1 Regum xxviii. 7 (‘Mulier pythonem habens in Endor’). See [Phitonessa].
Q
Q, a cue, as the signal for an actor to begin his part; ‘And took I not my Q?’ Barry, Ram-Alley, ii. 1 (W. Smallshanks); ‘And old men know their Q’s, id., iii. 1 (O. Small.). Some say it stood for L. quando, when; i.e. the time when.
quab, a crude or shapeless thing. Ford, Lover’s Melancholy, iii. 3. 5. Low G. quabbe, a piece of fat flesh, quabbeln, to be flabby, quiver like a piece of fat or soft flesh; Du. quabbe, ‘the dewlap of a Rudder-beast hanging down under his necke’ (Hexham).
quacking cheat, a cant term for a duck. Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Trapdoor). See [cheat] (2).
quadlin, a kind of apple, a ‘codling’, mentioned among the July fruits in Bacon’s Essay 46, Of Gardens; quodling, B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Dol Common). Perhaps a corruption of ME. querdlyng, appul, ‘duracenum’ (Prompt.).
quadrate, a troop in a square formation; ‘The Powers Militant . . . in mighty Quadrate joyn’d’, Milton, P. L. vi. 62. L. quadratus, squared; quadratum, a square.