Word origins

• parbreakTo vomit, spew out.
• -pauseIndicative of a pause or discontinuance.
• peine forte et dureCrushing, an old form of punishment (torture) in which the prisoner's body was pressed with heavy weights.
• peisantHeavy, massive, forcible
• pensionnaireSomeone receiving a pension.
• perceantPiercing, sharp.
• periaptA charm worn on a necklace; an amulet.
• periwigA wig, especially any kind of stylized wig as formerly worn by men and women.
• perpendTo ponder, consider.
• petalismA form of ostracism among the ancient Syracusans by which they temporarily banished a citizen suspected of having dangerous influence or ambition.
• petit pâtéA small pie or pasty.
• philodoxA person with an excessive interest in his/her own opinions.
• philterA kind of potion, charm, or drug; especially a love potion intended to make the drinker fall in love with the giver.
• pole arcticThe pole star.
• poltroonAn ignoble or total coward; a dastard; a mean-spirited wretch.
• portativePortable.
• pravityPerversion, depravity; wickedness.
• preallablePreliminary; previous.
• prebendA stipend paid to a canon of a cathedral.
• preparementPreparation.
• presidialBelonging to a province, or being like a province; provincial.
• procacityThe state of being procacious; forwardness, pertness, or petulance, or an instance thereof.
• profaceA familiar salutation or welcome offered by a host before a meal or drinks are served.
• proferensThe person who proposes a contract (or one of its clauses)
• pucelageVirginity.
• pudicityModesty; chastity.
• pulsativeCharacterised by pulsing or beating; throbbing.
• pumpionPumpkin.
• pusillanimityThe quality or state of being pusillanimous; the vice of being timid and cowardly, and thus not living up to one's full potential; pusillanimousness.
• putrefyTo fester or rot and exude a fetid stench.
• quintupletA group of five, particularly (music) a tuplet of five notes to be played in the time for four.
• rarefactTo reduce in density.
• rascetteThe wrist.
• rebecAn early three-stringed instrument, somewhat like a simple violin only pear shaped, played with a bow and used in Medieval and the early Renaissance eras.
• recommencementThe act of recommencing.
• remercyTo thank (someone).
• resileTo start back; to recoil; to recede from a purpose.
• retardanceThe difference in phase shift between two characteristic polarizations of light upon reflection from an interface. Retardance can be reported in the Abelès or Mueller conventions. The retardance phase shift angle is often specified in degrees.
• rondeletA metric verse (form), modeled after the rondeau, in two rhymes over seven lines, the first (in four syllables) being repeated as third and refrain (final one), each other line having eight syllables
• RoubaisianA person who was born in, or is a citizen or inhabitant of Roubaix, France
• roundelayA poem or song having a line or phrase repeated at regular intervals.
• SaliqueSalic; Salian
• salletA type of light spherical combat helmet used in the 15th century.
• sign manualAn authentic signature; (especially), the signature of a sovereign, used to validate a formal document.
• spontoonA pointed weapon similar to a pike.
• stolidityThe property of being stolid; unemotionality.
• stupefyTo dull the senses or capacity to think thereby reducing responsiveness; to stun.
• supereminentSuperior to or notable above all others; outstanding; supremely remarkable.
• syllogizeTo reason by means of syllogisms.
• talionRetaliation; retribution.
• tasletA piece of armor formerly worn to guard the thighs; a tasse.
• temporizeTo deliberately act evasively or prolong a discussion in order to gain time or postpone a decision, sometimes so that a compromise can be reached or simply to make a conversation more temperate; to stall for time.
• tendronA young, tender plant shoot; a bud.
• thurificationThe act, or an instance, of burning incense.
• timocracyA form of government in which ambition for honor, power and military glory motivates the rulers.
• tranquilizeTo calm (a person or animal) or put them to sleep using a tranquilizer dart.
• transmewTo transmute, change.
• tribadeA woman who engages in sexual activity with another woman; a lesbian.
• umbrageousHaving or providing shade; shady.
• vastityEmptiness or desolation.
• ventripotentHaving a big belly.
• veuglaireA wrought-iron cannon, part of the artillery of France in the Middle Ages.
• vindicativeVindicating, having a tendency to vindicate.
• vitreo-vitreous humour
• vitrifyTo convert into glass or a glass-like substance by heat and fusion.
• vocabulistThe writer or maker of a vocabulary (dictionary or glossary); a lexicographer.
• volubileTurning or whirling; winding.
• zoophyteAn animal thought to have the characteristics of a plant, later specifically an invertebrate of the (former) group Zoophyta, comprising sponges, corals and sea anemones.