A Dictionary of Cont..

pigeon 370
both countries pig is used in a figurative sense
to designate a person or animal of piggish character
or habits, that is, gluttonous and filthy (He
made a pig of himself at the smorgasbord). Hog
is also so used in America, but it is a stronger,
coarser word. As a term for one who takes more
than his share (of most things other than food)
or pushes in ahead of others, it is used in America
far more than pig (roadhog; that hog, did
you see him cut in there? Come on, don’t hog it
all; leave some for the rest of us). Indeed, pig is
a mildly humorous word, conveying only a slight
rebuke. Hog is strongly condemnatory. The English
use pig as a verb, the Americans hog.
In metallurgy, a pig is an oblong mass of
metal that has been run, while still molten, into
a mold of sand or the like. Hog, too, has its special
meanings, usually expressed in combination,
such as sandhog, groundhog, and so on.
pigeon; dove. Although any bird of the pigeon
family (Columbidae) is a dove, there are distinctions
in popular usage between the words
pigeon and dove. Despite the use of dovecote for
the structure which houses them, domesticated
doves are, by and large, called pigeons and wild
ones are, in America, called doves. The wild
passenger-pigeon is a marked exception, but its
name seems to have become fixed and the species
extinct before the modern distinction (which
is by no means absolute) became established.
In poetry and literature dove is a term of innocence,
gentleness and love. It was formerly
much applied to women. In contemporary American
slang pigeon is also applied to women but,
while still a term of affection, it is slightly
coarser, conveying more of the amatory nature
of the dove than its assumed innocence and gentleness.
In the lingo of the underworld a dead
pigeon is anyone faced with imminent disaster.
In sacred literature and art the dove is a symbol
of the Holy Ghost. So fixed is the word dove
in this particular application that the use of the
word pigeon in its place would be blasphemous.
pile Pelion on Ossa. It was the Titans-so Homer
tells us-who in their war against the gods
sought to scale Olympus by piling Mount Ossa
on Mount Pelion. As a term for heaping one
difficulty on another until the whole thing becomes
an outrage, the phrase is now a cliche.
The Titans and their war are known only to the
learned. Pelion is now called Zagora and Ossa is
now called Kissovo. It is, for most people, a
meaningless phrase.
pilfer. See steal.
pillar of the church. To refer to one of conspicuous
rectitude who is particularly active in his
support of some church as a pillar of the church
is to employ a hackneyed phrase.
pilot in nautical terminology describes one duly
qualified to steer ships into or out of a harbor
or through certain difficult waters (The pilot is
usually taken aboard off Sandy Hook). A less
common nautical meaning is steersman. In aviation,
a pilot is one duly qualified to operate an
airplane, balloon or other aircraft. This is probably
the sense in which the word pilot is now
most often understood by the laity (Pilot claims
runway approaches unsafe).
In a figurative sense, a pilot is any guide or
leader (When Guilford good/ Our pilot stood.
I hope to see my Pilot face to face/ When I have
crossed the bar). Sky pilot, which to most young
moderns would seem redundant, was a slang
term much used a generation or two ago for a
clergyman or chaplain.
In machinery, a pilot is a smaller element
acting in advance of another or principal element
and causing the latter to come into play
(Since the pilot on the gas range was out, he had
to light the burner with a match). A pilot plant,
an extension of this sense, is a small plant built
to test out processes of manufacture so that a
larger plant or plants may thereafter be built and
operated more efficiently.
pincers; pinchers. Pincers is the correct term to
describe a gripping tool consisting of two pivoted
limbs forming a pair of jaws and a pair of
handles. The word is frequently replaced in
America bv pinchers, though this is dialectal,
nonstandard.‘In recent years both terms have
been replaced to a large extent by pliers and
nippers.
The form pincers refers to one instrument but
is usually treated as a plural, as in these pincers
are too small. A singular construction, such as
here is a pincers, is unusual but acceptable. In
using a singular verb we more often say here is
a pair of pincers, and the construction with pair
must be used after a numeral, as in three pairs
of pincers. The singular pincer is not used as an
independent word but is the preferred form for
the first element of a compound, such as a pincer
grip.
pinch-hitter, as a term for a substitute, is a cliche.
Except when used of baseball, the term is often
misused. When a manager sends out a pinchhitter,
he assumes that the pinch-hitter will do
better than the man at bat. But in other activities,
when sickness or some other circumstance makes
it impossible for the principal to appear and a
substitute or understudy is rushed in to fill the
place, he is not expected to do better than the
principal would have done. It is a triumph if he
or she does what is required in any acceptable
fashion.
pins and needles. On pins and needles, as a term
for being uneasy, impatient with overtones of
anxiety, is a cliche.
pint. The British pint and the American pint are
different quantities. In America the standard
pint contains 16 U.S. fluid ounces and has a
capacity of 473.6 cubic centimeters. In England
the imperial pint contains 20 British fluid ounces
and has a capacity of 568 cubic centimeters.
The American pint, therefore, is just a little
more than 83% of the British pint.
pious fraud. Originally a translation of the French
fraude pieuse, referring to a deception practiced
to serve what the practicer regarded as a good
end, often for the furtherance of his religion, the
term has come in common American usage to
mean a hypocrite. It is applied far more often to