Being 14th in an irregularly posted series of carefully selected words from the Word Lover’s Dictionary: Unusual, Obscure, and Preposterous Words by Josefa Heifetz (New York: Carol Publishing, 1974, 1994, ISBN: 0806517204). For beginning entries in this series, please see Part 1 and Part 2. If you want to find all posts in the series, search on the title "Will Geek for Words" on this site. Eventually I add them to the sidebar listing. Part 14 is continuation of the letter "P" words begun in Part 13. "Geek" is used here in the ancient sense of eldritch horror, existing before our ancestors were even apes, before the first ocean creature crawled from the sea. Geeks saw a different reality, bathed in cosmic rays and illuminated by colours beyond the visible spectrum seen by mere mortal humans. Down throught the years, they have muttered and shouted "Cthulhu fhtagn!" If you value your sanity, never, never feed this sort of geek seafood; your mind could not stand the metamorphasis which follows.

No kickbacks are involved and this is not a promotional stunt. I am not paid to plug this book yet here I am, mentioning it at the top of each of these posts and linking to the Amazon page for it. I am still half-expecting and awaiting a "cease and desist" letter from their lawyers. ("Tick-tock, Clarice, tick-tock.") I'm sure it's "fair use" to include excerpted selections in a non-commercial venture. Did I mention that I'm poor? (This intro keeps getting weirder, stranger and sicker as time goes on. When the words turn weird, the weird turn prose.)

• plenary, adj.: 1. entire, complete, absolute. 2. all present, as in a meeting. 3. having full powers.
• plicate, adj.: folded like a fan.
• plutomania, n.: mania for money.
• poger, n.: a passive male homosexual (hobo cant).
• polesis, n.: creation; creative power or ability.
• pollaver, n.: fawning behavior; gross flattery.
• polyhistor, n.: a universal scholar; a thoroughly educated person.
• polylemma, n.: a dilemma with three or more equally undesirable solutions.
• polylogy, n.: wordiness.
• porlockian, adj.: intrusive, interrupting ( a man from Porlock wrecked Coleridge's train of thought during the writing of Kubla Khan).
• pornerastic, adj.: licentious, lascivious, lewd, and horny.
• pornocracy, n.: government by prostitutes.
• portmantologism, n.: a portmanteau, or blend word.
• posada, n.: a hotel or inn (Spanish).
• potamic, adj.: pertaining to rivers or river navigation.
• preantepenultimate, n. & adj.: fourth from last.
• precant, n.: one who prays.
• predal, adj.: plundering, pillaging, predatory.
• prehension, n.: 1. seizing, grasping. 2. taking possession.
• prejudicateness, n.: the process of being decided beforehand; preconception; prejudice.
• prender, n.: the right of taking something without its being offered (law).
• primogeniture, n.: state of being the first-born.
• princox, n.: a conceited dandy; a fop, coxcomb.
• prisiadka, n.: a Russian dance performed by men alternately extending a leg from a squatting position.
• procacious, adj.: impudant; petulant.
• proctalgia, n.: a pain in the ass. also rectalogia.
• prognathous, adj.: having a protruding jaw.
• prolegomena, n.pl.: preliminary remarks; long introductions.
• prolusion, n.: 1. a rehearsal, prelude. 2. an introductory essay.
• protasis, n.: 1. a maxim. 2. an introduction to a play.
• protean, adj.: infinitely variable; versatile.
• provine, v.t.: to layer.
• prox, n.: a roster of election candidates.
• prushun, n.: a young boy who begs for a man; a male homosexual who lives with beggars.
• pseudandry, n.: female use of a male pseudonym. see pseudogyny.
• pseudautochiria, n.: murder disguised as suicide. see pseudophonia.
• pseudogyny, n.: male use of a female pseudonym. see pseudandry.
• pseudomania, n.: neurotic assumption of guilt by an innocent party.
• pseudomnesia, n.: memory of things that never happened.
• pseudophonia, n.: suicide disguised as murder. see pseudautochiria.
• psychalgia, n.: mental anguish.
• psychasthenia, n.: neurotic lassitude, indecision; doubts, tics, and phobias.
• psychurgy, n.: mental energy.
• ptocholgony, n.: a system of producting beggars or poverty.
• puissant, adj.: powerful, potent, strong, masterful, authoritative.
• pukka, adj.: 1. real, authentic. 2. superior. also pucka.
• pule, v.i.: to whine.
• purblind, adj.: 1. partly blind. 2. lacking insight or understanding.
• purdah, n.: a screen or its material for hiding women from the public (India).
• purlicue, n. 1. the space between the thumb and extended forefinger. 2. a curlicue at the end of a word.
• purseproud, adj.: arrogant and haughtily proud of one's wealth.
• putage, n.: prostitution. also putanism.
• putative, adj.: supposed alleged, reputed.
• pygmalionism, n.: falling in love with one's creation.
• pyrolagnia, n.: sexual stimulation from watching fires.

Thus endth these "P" words.