Pilgarlio or Pill'd Garlic (A). One whose hair has fallen off from dissipation. Stow says of one getting bald:
“He will soon be a peeled garlic like myself.” Generally a poor wretch avoided and forsaken by his fellows. The
editor of Notes and Queries says that garlic was a prime specific for leprosy, so that garlic and leprosy became
inseparably associated. As lepers had to pill their own garlie, they were nicknamed Pil-garlics, and anyone
shunned like a leper was so called likewise. (To pill = to peel; see Gen. xxx. 37.)
It must be borne in mind that at one time garlic was much more commonly used in England than it is now.

Pilot according to Scaliger, is from an old French word, pile (a ship).

Piping Hot Hot as water which pipes or sings.

Meaning boiling.

Piraeus, city, central Greece, in Attikí (Attica) Department, on the Gulf of Saronikós, near Athens. It is a major port and industrial center of Greece. The city has shipyards, flour mills, and factories in which agricultural equipment, textiles, rugs, glass, and chemicals are produced. It also has a school of industrial studies (1938). Piraeus was laid out about 450 BC, at which time it already served Athens as a port. In 86 BC, it was totally destroyed by the Romans, and it resumed importance only after Greece became independent in the 19th century. In 1834 the site was chosen as the port for modern Athens. Population (1991) 169,622.

I remember reading that in classical time, ships with cargoes were hauled on rollers from
the post to Athens, a considerable distance.

Pitchers Little pitchers have long ears. Little folk or children hear what is said when you little think it.
The ear of a pitcher is the handle, made in the shape of a man's ear. The handle of a cream-ewer and of other small jugs is quite out of proportion to the size of the vessel, compared with the handles of large jars.

"Little pitchers have big ears" used to be admonition from one adult to others to warn that children
might repeat what they are gossiping about.

Pittance An allowance of victuals over and above bread and wine. Anthony du Pinet, in his
translation of Pliny, applies the term over and over again to figs and beans. The word originally
comes from the people's piety in giving to poor mendicants food for their subsistence. (Probably
connected with pietas. Monkish Latin, pietancia; Spanish, pitar, to distribute a dole of food;
pitancero, one who distributes the dole, or a begging friar who subsists by charity.)

And now pittance means a stingy amount.

Plagiarist means strictly one who kidnaps a slave. Martial applies the word to the kidnappers of other men's
brains. Literary theft unacknowledged is called plagiarism. (Latin, plagrarius.)

Plantagenet from planta gemeta (broom-plant), the family cognisance first assumed by the Earl of Anjou, the
first of his race, during a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, as a symbol of humility. (Sir George Buck: Richara III.)
Died 1622.

Plaster of Paris Gypsum, found in large quantities in the quarries of Montmartre, near Paris.

Plato His original name was Aristocles, but he was called Platon from the great breadth of his shoulders

Pleiades (3 syl.) means the “sailing stars” (Greek, pleo, to sail), because the Greeks considered
navigation safe at the return of the Pleiades, and never attempted it after those stars disappeared.
The PLEIADES were the seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione. They were transformed into stars,
one of which (Merope) is invisible out of shame, because she alone married a human being. Some
call the invisible star “Electra,” and say she hides herself from grief for the destruction of the city
and royal race of Troy.

A bit of trivia. Subaru logo is representation of the Pleiades, the Seven Sisters, because the
company resulted from the merger of seven small companies.

Pocket (diminutive of poche, a pouch).

Poe (Edgar Allan). The alias of Arthur Gordon Pym, the American poet. (1811-1849.)

Brewer really screwed up on this one. "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym" was the title of
one of Poe's short stories, according to my encyclopedia.

Polly Mary. The change of M for P in pet names is by no means rare; e.g. -
Margaret. Maggie or Meggy, becomes Peggie, and Pegg or Peg.
Martha. Matty becomes Patty.
Mary. Molly becomes Polly or Poll.
Here we see another change by no means unusual- that of r into l or ll. Similarly, Sarah becomes Sally;
Dorothea, Dora, becomes Dolly; Harry, Hal.

Poltroon' A coward. Menage derives it from the Italian poltro, a bed, because cowards feign
themselves sick a-bed in times of war. Saumaise says it means “maimed of the thumb,” because
in times of conscription those who had no stomach for the field disqualified themselves by
cutting off their right thumb. More probably apoltroon is a hawk that will not or cannot fly at game.

Pomona Fruit; goddess of fruits and fruit-trees — one of the Roman divinities. (Latin, pomum.)

Pons Asinorum The fifth proposition, book i., of Euclid- the first difficult theorem, which dunces rarely get
over for the first time without stumbling. It is anything but a “bridge;” it is really pedica asinorum, the “dolt's
stumbling-block.”

Pontiff means one who has charge of the bridges. According to Varro, the highest class of the Roman
priesthood had to superintend the construction of the bridges (ponies). (See Ramsay: Roman Antiquities, p.
51.)

Water that sings....why, why that is lovely, Bill! And here I was thinking all along about those purling waters singing, when piping hot ones do, too!

Water for all seasons...and sensations!

Boiling regards,
WordWaters

Porcelain (3 syl.), from porcelana, “a little pig.” So called by the Portuguese traders, from its
resemblance to cowrie-shells, the shape of which is not unlike a pig's back. The Chines
earthenware being white and glossy, like the inside of the shells, suggested the application
of the name. (See Marryatt's History of Pottery and Porcelain.)

And guess what the "bottom" of the cowrie shell looks like.

Post means placed. (Latin, positus.)
Post. A piece of timber placed in the ground.