The New Fowler's Modern English Usage, Revised Edition

597 pièce de résistance | pinion
pièce de résistance. The accents and
the italic type are obligatory. PI. pièces de
résistance, pronounced the same as the
sing.
pied-à-terre /pjeidoi'tea/. The hyphens
and the italic type are essential. PI. piedsà-terre
(pronunciation unchanged).
pietà. Print in italic and pronounce
/piei'ta:/.
pigeon, dove. Used literally of a bird,
the words are more or less coextensive
in application, most doves being
pigeons, and vice versa ('any of several
large usu. grey and white birds of the
family Columbidae', COD, 1995). But
pigeon is the word in everyday use, and
dove is mostly found in poetical or symbolical
contexts. 'The dove has been,
from the institution of Christianity, the
type of gentleness and harmlessness, and
occupies an important place in Christian
symbolism' {OED), being equated with
the Holy Spirit. Since the early 1960s
the word dove has also been applied to
a person who advocates negotiations as
a means of terminating or preventing a
military conflict, as opposed to a hawk,
who advocates a hard-line or warlike
policy. Species of dove found in Britain
(but not only in Britain), with a prefixed
word defining the species, include the
ring-dove (also called wood-pigeon), rock-
pigeon (English). Now disused in
favour of PIDGIN (English).
pigmy. See PYGMY.
pigsty. PL pigsties.
pilau /pilau/. The prevalent form in BrE
for this 'Middle Eastern or Indian dish
of spiced rice or wheat with meat, fish,
vegetables, etc' (COD), beside pilajff/pi'laef/
and pilaw /pi'lo:/. AmE dictionaries give
precedence to pilaf or pilaff. The word is
of Turkish origin.
pilfer (verb). The inflected forms are
pilfered, pilfering. See -R-, -RR-.
pilot (verb). The inflected forms are
piloted, piloting. See -T-, -TT-.
pilule, a small pill (L pilula). This is the
recommended spelling, not pillule.
pimento (small tropical tree), pimiento
(sweet pepper). PL pimentos, pimientos respectively.
See -O(E)S 6.
pinch. The idiomatic expression at a
pinch 'in an emergency, if necessary',
which is customary in BrE, answers to
AmE in a pinch. Examples: It could carry
two passengers easily, three at a pinch—
M. R. D. Foot, 1966; And then Danchkovsky
looked in. In a pinch he could be called
famous—New Yorker, 1989. The polarization
of the phrases is incomplete, and
in the 19c. either phrase could be used
in either country.
Pindaric, of or pertaining to the work of
the Greek poet Pindar (Pindaros, 518-438
BC), a writer of choral odes. Pindar's odes
dove (also called rock-pigeon), and the stockdove.
The turtle-dove belongs to a separate a series of strophes on the same plan or
'are written in regular stanzas, either in
genus (Streptopelia turtur). Other birds of in a series of triads, each consisting of
the family Columbidae, with an appropriate
prefix defining their role or ap­
Classical Diet.), using three main classes
strophe, antistrophe, and epode' (Oxford
pearance, are always called pigeons, e.g. of metre. The Pindaric odes of English
carrier pigeon, homing pigeon, pouter pigeon.
imitators have 'an unfixed number of
In English-speaking countries abroad,
stanzas arranged in groups of three, in
birds of the family Columbidae are much
which a strophe and antistrophe sharing
more likely to be called pigeons (with
the same length and complex metrical
appropriate defining word prefixed) than
pattern are followed by an epode of differing
length and pattern' (C. Baldick,
doves; and the pigeonlike birds there
are often members of a different family
1990). English writers of Pindaric odes
altogether, e.g. the Cape pigeon, a S. Afr.
include Thomas Gray ('The Progress of
petrel (Daption capense). and the New Zealand
(or native) pigeon (Hemiphaga novaesee-
Poesy', 'The Bard', both 1747) and Abralandiae)ham
Cowley ('Pindarique Odes', 1656).
Others, including Dryden and Pope,
wrote poems that resemble the model set
by Pindar, expressing 'exuberant heated
ideas and passionate feelings in appropriately
loose and (relatively) free
rhythms' (Alastair Fowler, 1987).
pinion (verb). The inflected forms are
pinioned, pinioning. See -N-, -NN-.