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Phenomenon (plural, phenomena) means simply what has appeared (Greek, phainomai, to appear). It is
used in science to express the visible result of an experiment. In popular language it means a prodigy.
(Greek, phainomenon.)
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Philippic A severs scolding; an invective. So called from the orations of Demosthenes against Philip of
Macedon, to rouse the Athenians to resist his encroachments. The orations of Cicero against Anthony are
called “Philippies.”
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Philistines meaning the ill-behaved and ignorant. The word so applied arose in Germany from the
Charlies or Philisters, who were in everlasting collision with the students; and in these “town and gown
rows” identified themselves with the town, called in our universities “the snobs.” Matthew Arnold, in the
Cornhill Magazine, applied the term Philistine to the middle class, which he says is “ignorant,
narrow-minded, and deficient in great ideas,” insomuch that the middle-class English are objects of
contempt in the eyes of foreigners.
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Philosopher's Stone The way to wealth. The ancient alchemists thought there was a substance which
would convert all baser metals into gold. This substance they called the philosopher's stone. Here the
word stone is about equal to the word substratum, which is compounded of the Latin sub and stratus
(spread-under), the latter being related to the verb stand, stood, and meaning something on which the
experiment stands. It was, in fact, a red powder or amalgam to drive off the impurities of baser metals.
(Stone, Saxon, stán.)
Philosopher's stone. According to legend, Noah was commanded to hang up the true and genuine
philosopher's stone in the ark, to give light to every living creature therein.
Inventions discovered in searching for the philosopher's stone. It was in searching for this treasure
that Boticher stumbled on the invention of Dresden porcelain manufacture; Roger Bacon on the
composition of gunpowder; Geber on the properties of acids; Van Helmont on the nature of gas; and Dr.
Glauber on the “salts” which bear his name.
And now we have Harry Potter.
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Philter (A). A draught or charm to incite in another the passion of love. The Thessalian philters were the
most renowned, but both the Greeks and Romans used these dangerous potions, which sometimes
produced insanity. Lucretius is said to have been driven mad by a love-potion, and Caligula's death is
attributed to some philters
More Harry Potter.
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Phoenix Said to live a certain number of years, when it makes in Arabia a nest of spices, sings a
melodious dirge, flaps his wings to set fire to the pile, burns itself to ashes, and comes forth with new life,
to repeat the former one
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Phylactery A charm or amulet. The Jews wore on their wrist or forehead a slip of parchment bearing a
text of Scripture. Strictly speaking, a phylactery consisted of four pieces of parchment, enclosed in two
black leather cases, and fastened to the forehead or wrist of the left hand. One case contained Ex. xiii.
1-10, 11-16; and the other case Deut. vi. 4-9, xi. 13-21. The idea arose from the command of Moses,
“Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart ... and bind them for a sign upon your hand ... as
frontlets between your eyes” (Deut. xi. 18). (Greek, phylacterion, from the verb phylasso to watch.)
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Pic-nic Dr. John Anthony derives it from the Italian piccola nicchia (a small task), each person being set
a small task towards the general entertainment. (French, pique-nique.)
The modern custom dates from 1802, but picnics, called eranot, where each person contributed
something, and one was appointed “master of the feast,” are mentioned by Homer, in his Odyssey, i. 226.
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Picador (Spanish). A horseman; one who in bull fights is armed with a gilt spear (pica-dorada), with
which he pricks the bull to madden him for the combat.
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Piccadilly (London). So called from Piccadilla Hall, the chief depôt of a certain sort of lace, much in
vogue during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. The lace was called piccadilly lace, from its little spear-points
(a diminutive of pica, a pike or spear). In the reign of James I. the high ruff was called a piccadilly,
though divested of its lace edging. Barnaby Rice, speaking of the piccadillies, says- “He that some forty
years sithen should have asked after a piccadilly, I wonder who would have understood him, and would
have told him whether it was fish or flesh” (1614). Another derivation is given in the Glossographia
(1681). Piccadilly, we are there told, was named from Higgins' famous ordinary near St. James's, called
Higgins's Pickadilly, “because he made his money by selling piccadillies” (p. 495). (See also Hone:
Everyday Book, vol. ii. p. 381.)
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