Being part the 13th of 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 13 encompasses the letter "P" words and their definitions. "Geek" is used here in the older, carny definition of a sideshow actor who acted like a "wild man" and often bit the heads off chickens at the culmination of his act. Does this actually explain my use of the word for this series of posts? No, but I burn with a desire to experience the romantic lifestyle of these geeks, these precious degenerates. I love words in a very, very special way. Don't I have a charming and sophisticated way of showing it? (No chickens were harmed in the creation of this post.)

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.)

• pachycephalic, adj.: thick-skulled.
• pachydermatous, adj.: 1. thick-skinned. 2. pertaining to the elephant or rhinoceros.
• paladin, n.: 1. one of Charlemagne's twelve peers. 2. a knight of the round table. 3. a paragon of knighthood.
• palanquin, n.: a closed litter carried on the shoulders of four men.
• palimpsest, n.: 1. writing material on which writing can be erased. 2. used writing material with erasures. 3. brass reengraved on the reverse side. -adj. rewritten or reengraved. -v.t. to write on erased writing material.
• palinoia, n.: compulsive repetition of an act until it's perfect.
• pallinards, n. pl.: professional beggars whose parents were also beggars and who use trickery to arouse sympathy.
• palter, v.i.: 1. to mumble or babble. 2. to act insincerely. 3. to bargain, haggle.
• paltripolitan, n.: an insular city dweller (metropolitan + paltry).
• pandemic, adj.: 1. pertaining to all people. 2. general, universal. 3. affecting the majority, everywhere epidemic (medical). 4. sensual.
• panjandrum, n.: 1. a satiric title for a pompous official. 2. ceremonial fuss.
• pannage, n.: 1. feeding swine in the forest. 2. food eaten by forest swine.
• pannychous, adj.: lasting all night.
• pantagamy, n.: communal marriage.
• pantagruelian, adj.: satiric, though ribald (Rabelais' Pantagruel)
• pantophobia, n.: fear of everything; cowardice.
• panurgy, n.: universal skill or craft.
• paphian, adj.: erotic; pertaining to illicit love. -n. 1. a prostitute. 2. an inhabitant of Paphos, Cyprus.
• paracoita, n.: a female sexual partner.
• paracoitus, n.: a male sexual partner.
• paradiastole, n.: a euphemistic half-truth.
• paramimia, n.: pathological misuse of gestures.
• paraph, n.: a flourish at the end of a signature, once used as a protection against forgery.
• parapraxis, n.: a memory lapse; a slip of the tongue; general clumsiness.
• parergon, n.: 1. an embellishment; a decorative accessory. 2. an avocation.
• parrhesia, n.: freedom of speech (in rhetoric).
• partheniad, n.: a poem in honor of a virgin.
• parturient, adj.: pertaining to childbirth or parturition; about to produce an idea or discovery.
• parvanimity, n.: 1. pettiness; meanness. 2. a mean or petty person, opposite of magnanimity.
• parviscient, adj.: uninformed.
• pasquinade, n.: a malicious satire or lampoon, often in rhyme; a pasquil. -v.t. to lampoon or satirize. pasquinader, one who writes or collects pasquinades.
• pathic, n.: 1. a catamite. 2. a passive participator. -adj. passive; suffering.
  
• pathognomy, n.: 1. the study of emotions by their outward signs. 2. the science of diagnosis.
• pathomimesis, n.: malingering.
• patibulary, adj.: pertaining to the gallows or hanging.
• patulous, adj.: open, expanded, distended, spreading.
• pauciloquent, adj.: speaking briefly.
• pawky, adj.: cunning, shrewd, crafty (slang).
• paynim, n.: pagandom; a pagan or infidel, especially a Mohammedan. [sic]
• peccable, adj.: liable to sin; susceptible to temptation; peccant.
• peccant, adj.: 1. peccable. 2. liable to break certain social rules; incorrect. 2. inducing disease.
• peckerwood, n.: a poor southern ASP or Anglo-Saxon Protestant (the woodpecker symbolizing whites in the South).
• pecksniffian, adj.: hypocritical, insincere, and gutless.
• pedetentous, adj.: proceeding gradually or cautiously.
• peirastic, adj.: experimental; ready to be tried.
• pelagic, adj.: pertaining to or living in the ocean.
• pelf, n.: 1. booty. 2. trash. 3. fur. 4. a good-for-nothing. -v.t. & i. to rob.
• peotomy, n.: the surgical amputation of the penis.
• peri, n.: a beautiful, elfin person (Persian mythology).
• pernoctation, n.: a night-long vigil.
• perpend, n.: a large stone acting as a wall. -v.t. to ponder carefully. -v.i. to concentrate, be attentive.
• perseity, n.: independence or self-sufficiency
• pervicacious, adj.: extremely obstinate, willful.
• petalism, n.: the custom in ancient Syracuse of banishing a dangerous citizen for five years.
• petulcous, adj.: butting like a ram; offensively aggressive.
• phasmophobia, n.: fear of ghosts.
• phemic, adj.: pertaining to speech.
• philalethe, n.: one who loves to forget.
• philalethist, n.: a truth-lover.
• philiater, n.: an amateur medical student.
• pilodox, n.: one who loves her own opinions; a dogmatist. philodoxical, adj.
• philonoist, n.: a searcher for knowledge.
• philophobia, n.: fear of falling in love or of being loved.
• philopolemic, adj.: pertaining to love of argument or controversy.
• philoxenist, n.: one who is happiest while entertaining strangers.
• phobophobia, n.: fear of phobias, or fear of fear itself.
• phratry, n.: 1. a clan. 2. a primitive tribe combining several totemic clans.
• phreatic, adj.: pertaining to a well or underground water.
• phylogeny, n.: evolution of a race or related organisms (ontongeny is the evolution of the individual organism).
• piacular, adj.: requiring expiation; very bad, sinful.
• piation, n.: atoning or expiating.
• pica, n.: 1. the craving for strange foods. 2. one-sixth of an inch (printing).
• pigmean, adj.: very small.
• pilliwinks, n. pl.: an old instument of torture for the thumbs and fingers.
• piloerection, n.: hair standing on end.
• pinchpin, n.: 1. a married woman who insists on her rights. 2. a prostitute.
• pis-aller, n.: the last resort.
• piss-proud, adj.: having a false erection; said of an old man with a young wife.
• pistic, adj.: pure, genuine; pertaining to faith.

I'm breaking the P words here. There are an awful lot of them.