A Dictionary of Cont..

and fortunate man. The violence of its exaggeration
no doubt paralleled the violent exaggeration
of the lie that moved him to the coinage.
But centuries of use have worn it bare. Its meaning
and glory have departed.
paltry. See petty.
panacea derives from a Greek word meaning “allhealing”
and means a remedy for all diseases,
a cure-all (At first penicillin was hailed by the
lay press us a panacea). It is, therefore, incorrect
to speak of a panacea for any particular disease
(as a panacea for polio, a panacea for cancer,
etc.). The same holds for figurative uses of the
word. A panacea for our social ills is correct. A
panacea for the stock market is not.
pandemic. See epidemic.
panegyric; praise. Panegyric is not synonymous
with praise. It describes an oration, discourse, or
formal writing in praise of a person or a thing,
a eulogy (I piofess to write, not his panegyric,
which must be all uraise. bui his Life-James
Boswell, of his Life-of Johnson). The emphasis
in panegyric is on public, formal praise, whether
in speech or writing. See also elegy; eulogy.
panhandle. In America and England panhandle
has the simple, basic meaning of the handle of
a pan. In the United States there are two figurative
extensions of this meaning. As a standard
noun panhandle may describe a narrow projecting
strip of land, especially part of a state extending
between two others. West Virginia,
Texas, Oklahoma, Idaho and Alaska have panhandles.
There is a slang verb, panhandle, which
suggests figuratively holding out a pan or cup
for alms, hence begging, especially begging on
the street (Men in Skid Row are quick to panhandle
each other). From this verb there is a
further slang noun, panhandler, one who panhandles
(You can’t go a block on Michigan Avenue
without having to claw off half a dozen
panhandlers).
panic. As an intransitive and a transitive verb,
panic has the present participle, panicking, and
the past and past participle, panicked.
In its transitive sense, panic means to affect
with panic, a demoralizing terror with or without
clear cause, often as affecting a group of
persons or animals (Word of the German breakthrough
panicked civilians clogging the roads
from Paris). To panic also has, in theatrical
slang, the meaning of to amuse an audience to
the point of rendering it hysterical and disorganized
(Will Rogers panicked them with his Oklahoma
drawl and his rope tricks). In its intransitive
sense, panic means to be affected with
panic (At the first shot the whole herd panicked).
pants, a familiar abbreviation of pantaloons, in
American use means meh’s trousers (Sam, you
made the pants too long. She wears the pants in
that family). In England pants is the colloquial
term for drawers (what Americans would call
underpants), garments for the lower part of the
body and legs, to be worn next to the skin. This
British sense is in America applied only to
women’s lower undergarments, though the more
usual term is panties (Ten students were suspended
today after having entered the women’s
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dormitory last night and taken several pairs of
panties).
The word refers to one garment but is treated
as a plural, as in these punts are new. In order
to use the word with a singular verb or to speak
of more than one garment, it is necessary to say
this pair of pants is new or several pairs of pants.
The form punts is also used as the first element
in a compound, as in a punts pocket.
papyrus. The plural is papyruses or papyri.
parable. See allegory, myth.
paradise; paradisal; heavenly. Whatever its perfections
as a place, paradise has a peculiar imperfection
as an English noun: it is extraordinarily
difficult to base a satisfactory adjective on it.
Parndisaic, paradisaical, paradisiac, paradisiacal,
paradisean, paradisal, paradisic, paradisicalthough
correctly formed all sound awkward.
Of them, in Fowler’s opinion at least, paradisal
is the least intolerable because it retains the
sound of the last syllable of pnradise. Paradisaic,
paradisaical, paradisial and paradisian are ill
formed on the substantive root, though this is
not a matter of much concern to the common
speaker or writer. Fowler’s concluding suggestion,
no doubt at least semi-humorous, that the
wise man abandon the search and “take refuge”
in heavenly is not wholly satisfactory because
heaven and paradise are not the same places and
have wholly different atmospheres, rights, privileges,
and conditions. Then heavenly has become
an enfeebled gushword. Paradise has a much
stronger connotation of sensual delights, probably
from its oriental associations, and, at the
same time, a wistfulness or ominousness, from
the Biblical associations, at the evanescence of
its pleasures and the imminence of separation
and expulsion.
paradox. A paradox is a statement which seems
absurd, obviously untrue, self-contradictory, yet
which upon investigation or explanation will be
seen to be well founded. Many riddles are paradoxes
(These are old fond paradoxes to make
fools laugh i’ the alehouse), but so also are many
profound statements. Paradoxes are much used
in rhetoric because of the force of their seeming
self-contradiction. A good example is supplied
by the 9th and 10th verses of the 6th chapter of
Second Corinthians: As unknown, and yet well
known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chnstened,
and not killed; as sorrowful, yet always
rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having
nothing, and yet possessing all things.
The adjective is paradoxical. He who indulges
in paradoxes is a paradoxer. And the holding
and defending of paradoxes is paradoxology.
paraffin. See kerosene.
paragraphs. The break made by a new paragraph
has two purposes. It causes the reader to make a
fresh start and it breaks the monotony of the
printed page. How long a paragraph should be
depends a great deal on such mechanical matters
as the size of the page, the width of the columns,
the kind of type used. Breaks should be made
where there is also some break in thought, where
making a fresh start will not be disrupting. But
as a rule, almost any paragraph could be broken