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Of or pertaining to Persia, to the Persians, or to their language. Persian berry, the fruit of Rhamnus infectorius, a kind of buckthorn, used for dyeing yellow, and imported chiefly from Trebizond. -- Persian cat. (Zoöl.) Same as Angora cat, under Angora. -- Persian columns (Arch.), columns of which the shaft represe…

The Persian language.

Small; little; insignificant; mean; -- Same as Petty. [Obs., except in legal language.] By what small, petit hints does the mind catch hold of and recover a vanishing notion. South. Petit constable, an inferior civil officer, subordinate to the high constable. -- Petit jury, a jury of twelve men, impaneled to try caus…

To study, or make critical comments on, language. Evelyn.

The study of language, especially in a philosophical manner and as a science; the investigation of the laws of human speech, the relation of different tongues to one another, and historical development of languages; linguistic science.

A method of phonetic printing of the English language, as devised by Mr. Pitman, in which nearly all the ordinary letters and many new forms are employed in order to indicate each elementary sound by a separate character.

, natural or artificial; graphic; vivid; as, a picturesque scene or attitude; picturesque language. What is picturesque as placed in relation to the beautiful and the sublime It is . . . the characteristic pushed into a sensible excess. De Quincey. -- Pic`tur*esque"ly, adv. -- Pic`tur*esque"ness, n.…

Fig.: Mixed. "Piebald languages." Hudibras.

A scheme devised; a method of action or procedure expressed or described in language; a project; as, the plan of a constitution; the plan of an expedition. God's plans like lines pure and white unfold. M. R. Smith.

state of being flat, thin, or insipid; flat commonness; triteness; staleness of ideas of language. To hammer one golden grain of wit into a sheet of infinite platitude. Motley.

Redundancy of language in speaking or writing; the use of more words than are necessary to express the idea; as, I saw it with my own eyes.

A handsome fortune or property; formerly, in cant language, the sum of £100,000 sterling; also, the person possessing it. Plum bird, Plum budder (Zoöl.), the European bullfinch. -- Plum gouger (Zoöl.), a weevil, or curculio (Coccotorus scutellaris), which destroys plums. It makes round holes in the pulp, for the recep…

A composition, not in verse, of which the language is highly imaginative or impassioned; as, a prose poem; the poems of Ossian.

ossom and the fragrance of all human knowledge, human thoughts, human passions, emotions, language. Coleridge.

Hence, direct; plain; unqualified; -- said of language; as, a point-blank assertion. Point-blank range, the extent of the apparent right line of a ball discharged. -- Point-blank shot, the shot of a gun pointed directly toward the object to be hit.

The language of the Poles.

The Polish language.

Containing, or made up, of, several languages; as, a polyglot lexicon, Bible.

Speaking many languages; polyglot. [R.] "The polyglottous tribes of America." Max Müller.

The formation of a word by the combination of several simple words, as in the aboriginal languages of America; agglutination. Latham.