Patronymic. Gr. pater, father, and onoma, name. A surname or sirename of a man taken from the forename of his father; as, John Richardson, Dafydd Ap-hoel, Patrick Mac-Duff, Jeroboam Ben-Nebat.
Pedigree. Kin-stem, forekin-stem.
Penultimate. Last but one.
Perambulator (the child’s carriage). Push-wainling.
Perfect. Fordone, forended, full-ended.
Period, in rhetoric (redecraft) and speechcraft, is so called, as a speech-ring or speech-round, a full round of thought-wording, in which the speech-meaning is kept uphanging and more or less unclear, till the last word or word-cluster by which it is clearly fulfilled; as, ‘(1) That among the sundry changes of the world (2), (3) our hearts may surely there be fixed (4): (5) where true joys are to be found (6).’ The whole thought-wording is a period or speech-round. From (1) to (4) is a limb (called in Greek a kōlon) and has a meaning, though not a full one beyond which the mind awaits nothing more. The word-cluster from (1) to (2) yields no full meaning, and is called in Greek a komma (kopma), a cutting or shareling. Thence we see the source of the names and uses of the stops—the period (.), colon (:), comma (,). The period marked the end of the period; the colon that of the kolon; and the comma that of a comma, or cutting of a colon.
The word seems to be often misused. A period (Gr. periodos) of time or wording is rightly a running of it round again to its like beginning; as, a week—from Sunday round to Sunday; or a year—from January to January.
A straight stretch of time or words is not truly a period; as, a man’s life from birth to manhood is not a ring-gate, beginning anew at childhood.
Periphrasis. Gr. peri, round; phrasis, a speaking. A roundabout speaking of a thing instead of an outright naming of it, a name-hinting; as, ‘The gentleman at the head of Her Majesty’s Government’ for Lord B.
Personal (time-word); not an impersonal one; as, ‘It rains.’ ‘It snows;’ but one with a named time-taker, as ‘John rides.’