| pianet | <zoology> The magpie. Alternative forms: pianate, and pyenate. The lesser woodpecker. Origin: Cf. Pie magpie. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| pianissimo | Very soft; a direction to execute a passage as softly as possible. (Abbrev. Pp) Origin: It, superl. Of piano. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| pianist's cramp | A dystonia that affects the muscles of the hand and sometimes the forearm and only occurs when playing the piano (or another keyboard instrument such as the harpsichord). Similar focal dystonias have also been called writer's cramp, typist's cramp, musician's cramp, and golfer's cramp. (12 Dec 1998) |
| piano percussion | Examination for dullness by striking the chest wall directly with the fingertips of one hand successively, beginning with the fifth finger. Synonym: piano percussion. (05 Mar 2000) |
| pianograph | A form of melodiograph applied to a piano. Origin: Piano + -graph. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| piapec | <zoology> A West African pie (Ptilostomus Senegalensis). Origin: Cf. Pie a magpie. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| piarachnoid | The two delicate layers of the meninges, the arachnoid mater and pia mater (vs. The tough pachymeninx or dura mater), considered together; by this concept, the arachnoid and pia are two parts of a single layer, much like the parietal and visceral layers of a serous membrane or bursa; although separated by the subarachnoid space they are connected via the arachnoid trabeculae and become continuous where the nerves and filum terminale exit the subarachnoid space (the cerebrospinal fluid-filled space bounded by the leptomeninges). See: arachnoid, pia mater. Synonym: meninx tenuis, pia-arachnoid, piarachnoid. Origin: Lepto-+ G. Meninx, pl. Meninges, membrane (05 Mar 2000) |
| piarist | One of a religious order who are the regular clerks of the Scuole Pie (religious schools), an institute of secondary education, founded at Rome in the last years of the 16th century. Origin: L. Pius pious. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| piassava | A fibrous product of two Brazilian palm trees (Attalea funifera and Leopoldinia Piassaba), used in making brooms, and for other purposes. Synonym: piacaba and piasaba. Origin: Pg. Piasaba. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| piblokto | Pibloktog A hysterical dissociative state, usually occurring in Eskimo women, in which the individual screams, tears off clothes, and runs out into the snow; afterward, there is no memory of the episode. Origin: Native (05 Mar 2000) |
| pica | 1. <zoology> The genus that includes the magpies. 2. <medicine> A vitiated appetite that craves what is unfit for food, as chalk, ashes, coal, etc.; chthonophagia. 3. A service-book. See Pie. 4. A size of type next larger than small pica, and smaller than English. This line is printed in pica Pica is twice the size of nonpareil, and is used as a standard of measurement in casting leads, cutting rules, etc, and also as a standard by which to designate several larger kinds of type, as double pica, two-line pica, four-line pica, and the like. Small pica, a size of type next larger than long primer, and smaller than pica. This line is printed in small pica Origin: L. Pica a pie, magpie; in sense 3 prob. Named from some resemblance to the colours of the magpie. Cf. Pie magpie. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| picamar | <chemistry> An oily liquid hydrocarbon extracted from the creosote of beechwood tar. It consists essentially of certain derivatives of pyrogallol. Origin: L. Pix, picis, pitch + amarus bitter. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| picapare | <zoology> The finfoot. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| picariae | <ornithology> An extensive division of birds which includes the woodpeckers, toucans, trogons, hornbills, kingfishers, motmots, rollers, and goatsuckers. By some writers it is made to include also the cuckoos, swifts, and humming birds. Origin: NL, fr. L. Picus a woodpecker. (01 Mar 1998) |
| picarian | <zoology> Of or pertaining to Picariae. One of the Picariae. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |