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4274 entries found
pyrotechnician (n.)
1729, from pyrotechnic + -an.
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pyrotechnics (n.)
1729, from pyrotechnic (also see -ics). Figurative sense is from 1901.
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Pyrrhic (adj.)
1885 (usually in phrase Pyrrhic victory), from Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, who defeated Roman armies at Asculum, 280 B.C.E., but at such cost to his own troops that he was unable to follow up and attack Rome itself, and is said to have remarked, "one more such victory and we are lost."
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pyrrhic (n.)
"dance in armor" (1590s), also a type of metrical foot (1620s), from Latin pyrrhicha, from Greek pyrrikhe orkhesis, the war-dance of ancient Greece, traditionally named for its inventor, Pyrrikhos. The name means "reddish," from pyrros "flame-colored," from pyr "fire," from PIE root *paewr- "fire." As an adjective from 1749.
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Pyrrhonic (adj.)
1590s, "pertaining to Pyrrho" (c. 360-c. 275 B.C.E.), skeptic philosopher of Elis, who held the impossibility of attaining certainty of knowledge. Related: Pyrrhonism; Pyrrhonist.
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Pythagorean (adj.)
1540s, from Latin Pythagoreus "of or pertaining to Pythagoras," Greek philosopher of Samos (6c. B.C.E.), whose teachings included transmigration of the soul and vegetarianism (these are some of the commonest early allusions in English). The Pythagorean theorem is the 47th of the first book of Euclid.
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Pythia (n.)
"priestess of Apollo at Delphi," 1842, from Greek pythia (hiereia) "(Priestess) of Pythian Apollo, from a variant form of Pythios, an epithet of Apollo, from Pytho, older name of the region of Delphi (see python).
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Pythian (adj.)
c. 1600, "pertaining to Delphi or Delphic Apollo," from Pythia + -an. As a noun from 1590s.
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python (n.)
1580s, fabled serpent, slain by Apollo near Delphi, from Latin Python, from Greek Python "serpent slain by Apollo," probably related to Pytho, the old name of Delphi, perhaps itself related to pythein "to rot," or from PIE *dhubh-(o)n-, from *dheub- "hollow, deep, bottom, depths," and used in reference to the monsters who inhabit them. Zoological application to large non-venomous snakes of the tropics is from 1836, originally in French.
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Pythonesque (adj.)
1975, in reference to the style of humor popularized by British TV series "Monty Python's Flying Circus."
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