Word origins

• pachy-Thick; thickness.
• pachysandraA genus, Pachysandra, of four or five species of evergreen shrubs or subshrubs, belonging to the boxwood family, Buxaceae, used ornamentally as groundcover.
• PædionThe Athenian plain.
• paedophagyThe act of feeding off larvae or eggs.
• paenismusA figure of speech consisting of a call for others to rejoice or exult over something, rather than merely stating the fact; an expression of feeling by calling on others to rejoice.
• pagophagiaThe pathological consumption of ice, a manifestation of pica, often resulting from iron or nutritional deficiencies.
• -pagusconjoined twins
• paideuticsThe science or art of teaching.
• paki-Pakistan
• PalaeologusThe last dynasty ruling the Eastern Roman Empire.
• paleo-Old; ancient or primitive.
• paleocrysticOf, pertaining to, or derived from a former glacial formation; composed of ancient ice.
• paleologismA word or phrase that was coined in the distant past, often now obscured or offensive, or if recently used: possibly having a definition or implication different from that of any earlier usage.
• pali-recurrence, repetition
• palikarismThe lawless warlike practices of certain ancient Greeks.
• palin-forms terms, of Greek origin, related to repetition or recurrence
• palindromiaA relapse or recurrence of a disease.
• palinopsiaA visual disturbance that causes images to persist to some extent even after their corresponding stimulus has left.
• palinspasticShowing the previous location of geological features, correcting for any intervening crustal movements.
• palmo-Of or related to the palm.
• palmomancyDivination of involuntary movements of the body such as tics.
• palmoscopyObservation of the pulse.
• PalmyreneOf, from or relating to ancient Palmyra or Palmyrena.
• palynivoreAny organism that feeds on pollen; a pollinivore.
• palyno-pollen
• pan-All.
• PanathenaicOf or relating to the Panathenaea.
• panbiotismSynonym of hylozoism, the belief that all physical matter is alive in some sense.
• panchromiumAn early proposed name for the element vanadium
• pancraticHaving all or many degrees of power; having a great range of power; said of an eyepiece made adjustable so as to give a varying magnifying power.
• PandaisiaOne of the Charites worshipped in Athens.
• pandarA person who furthers the illicit love affairs of others; a pimp or procurer, especially when male.
• panegyrisreligious festival on a fixed day in honor of a god, often including prayers, games, and panegyrics.
• PanioniumAn Ionian sanctuary dedicated to Poseidon Helikonios, and the meeting-place of the Ionian League.
• PannonaA former ancient town in Ancient Greece.
• PannotiaA supercontinent which formed on Earth approximately 600 million years ago.
• PannychisOne of the Charites worshipped in Athens.
• panoisticProducing ova only, and not yolk cells.
• panolepsyPossession by Pan.
• pantaleonA very large dulcimer, invented around 1700.
• pantechniconA building or place housing shops or stalls where all sorts of (especially exotic) manufactured articles are collected for sale.
• panthodicOf nervous impulses: radiating to all parts of the body.
• panto-all
• pantropyThe process of adapting humans through genetic and/or cybernetic means to thrive in environments otherwise inhospitable to them, such as outer space, the deep sea or other planets.
• PaphlagoniaA historical region in northern Asia Minor in modern Turkey, on the shore of the Black Sea, between Bithynia and Pontus.
• papyro-Of, similar to, or related to papyrus or things made from papyrus.
• papyrophobiaFear or hatred of paper.
• papyropolistSynonym of stationer: a seller of paper.
• papyrosSynonym of papyrus.
• para-beside, alongside
• parabanic acidThe imidazolidinone imidazolidine-2,4,5-trione
• parabaptistA person carrying out unlawful baptisms, especially in the early Church.
• parabariomicroliteA trigonal-hexagonal scalenohedral mineral containing barium, hydrogen, oxygen, and tantalum.
• parabasisThe part of an Ancient Greek comedy in which the actors leave the stage and the chorus addresses the audience directly.
• parablepsisA circumstance in which a scribe miscopies text due to inadvertently looking to the side while copying, or accidentally skips over some of it.
• parachronicExisting in a separate timeline or temporal dimension; pertaining to such existence or to connection or movement between timelines.
• parachroseChanging colour by exposure to weather.
• paraclausithyronA motif in classical love poetry, the lament of a shut-out lover.
• paracmasticGradually decreasing; past the acme, or crisis.
• paracmeA point beyond the highest or greatest.
• paracosmA detailed imaginary world, especially one created by a child.
• paradactylThe side of a bird's toe
• paradiastoleA form of euphemism in which a positive synonym is substituted for a negative word.
• paradigmatizeTo set forth as a model or example.
• paradoxureAny member of the species in the genus Paradoxurus, Asiatic viverrine mammals allied to the civet.
• paraenesisAdvice or exhortation, particularly of a moral or religious nature.
• paraglenalRelating to the coracoid of a fish.
• paragraphosIn Ancient Greek papyri, anything written beside the main text, such as a marginal note or sign to mark the close or beginning of a sentence, or (in a drama) to indicate a change of speaker.
• paraliansomeone who lives by the sea
• paralipomenaThe different text variants or text witnesses researched when creating a critical edition.
• paralipomenonEither of the Books of Chronicles in the Old Testament.
• paralipsisA figure of speech in which one pretends to ignore or omit something by actually mentioning it.
• paramiographerA collector or writer of proverbs.
• paramylonA carbohydrate similar to starch, synthesized along with starch by the chloroplasts found in Euglena.
• paranatellonA star or constellation that rises (above the horizon) at the same time as another.
• paraphiaparapsis; a disorder of the sense of touch
• paraphoniaIn Byzantine music, a melodic progression by consonances (fourths and fifths).
• paraphragmaparaphragm.
• paraprosdokianA figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected in a way that causes the reader or listener to reframe or reinterpret the first part.
• paraseleneSynonym of moon dog.
• parasiopesisSynonym of paralipsis.
• parastichyA secondary spiral of leaves or florets.
• parasynthesisThe formation of words by a combination of compounding and adding an affix, as in brown-eyed.
• parataxisSpeech or writing in which clauses or phrases are placed together without being separated by conjunctions.
• paratenonA fatty areolar tissue that fills the interstitia within the fascia where a tendon is located.
• parathesisThe placing of two or more nouns in the same case; apposition.
• pardaloteAny of the Australian birds of the genus Pardalotus, which feed on lerps.
• paredrosAn assistant or servant of a god.
• paregoricA painkiller; a medicine which soothes or relieves pain; specifically the traditional patent medicine consisting of camphorated tincture of opium.
• parelconA form of redundancy involving the addition of a syllable, particle, or another word, to the end of a word.
• paremboleA kind of rhetorical parenthesis. The insertion of something relating to the subject in the middle of a period.
• paremptosisparembole
• parenesisexhortation
• parergonA piece of work that is supplementary to or a byproduct of a larger work.
• parergySomething unimportant, incidental, or superfluous; a trifle
• paresthesisParesthesia.
• pareuniaSexual intercourse.
• paristhmiontonsil
• parodosA side entrance to an Ancient Greek theater, affording access to the stage or orchestra.
• paroeciousHaving the male and female reproductive organs growing beside or near each other, as in certain cryptogams.