Chapter Parr to Parysatis of P by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Parthenia Mistress of Argalus, in the Arcadia, of Sir Philip Sydney.

Parthenope (4 syl.). Naples; so called from Parthenope, the siren, who threw herself into the sea out of love for Ulysses, and was cast up on the bay of Naples.

Parthenopean Republic That of Naples, from January 22, 1799, to the June following.

Parti (A). An eligible person for a big marriage.

“Prince Frederick Leopold is a parti, as he has inherited the bulk of his father's immense fortune [twenty- four millions sterling].”- Newspaper Paragraph, 1885.

Particular Baptists That branch of the Baptist Dissenters who limit the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper to those who have been recipients of adult baptism. Open Baptists admit any baptised person to receive it.

Particularists Those who hold the doctrine of particular election and reprobation.

Parting

“Parting is such sweet sorrow,
That I shall say `Good Night' till it be morrow.”
Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet, ii. 2.

Parting Cup (A), was, by the ancient Romans, drunk in honour of Mercury to insure sound sleep. (See Ovid, Fasti, ii. 635.) (See Stirrup Cup .)

Partington A Mrs. Malaprop, or Tabitha Bramble, famous for her misuse of hard words. (B. P. Shillaber; an American author.)
   Dame Partington and her mop. A taunt against those who try to withstand progress. The newspapers say that a Mrs. Partington had a cottage at Sidmouth, in Devonshire. In November, 1824, a heavy gale drove the seawaves into her house, and the old lady laboured with a mop to sop the wet up, till she was obliged to take refuge in the upper part of the house. The Rev. Sydney Smith, speaking on the Lords rejection of the Reform Bill, October, 1831, compares them to Dame Partington with her mop, trying to push back the Atlantic. “She was excellent,” he says, “at a slop or puddle, but should never have meddled with a tempest.”

Partlet The hen in Chaucer's Nun's Priest's Tale, and in the tale of Reynard the Fox (fourteenth century). So called from the partlet or loose collar of “the doublet,” referring to the frill-like feathers round the neck of certain hens. (A partlet was a ruff worn in the 16th century by women.)

“In the barn the tenant cock
Close to partlet perched on high.”
Cuningham.

   Sister Partlet with her hooded head, allegorises the cloistered community of nuns in Dryden's Hind and Panther, where the Roman Catholic clergy are likened to barnyard fowls.

Partridge The attendant of Jones, half - barber and half - schoolmaster; shrewd, but simple as a child. His simplicity, and his strong excitement at the play-house, when he went to see Garrick in Hamlet, are admirably portrayed. (Fielding: Tom Jones.)

Partridge's Day (St.), September 1, the first day of partridge shooting.

Partula according to Tertullian, was the goddess of pregnancy, who determined the time of gestation. (Aulus Gellius, iii. c. 16.)

Parturiunt Montes “Parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus.” The Egyptian king Tachos sustained a long war against Artaxerxes Ochus, and sent to the Lacedemonians for aid. King Agesilaos went with a contingent, but when the Egyptians saw a little, ill-dressed lame man, they said: “Parturiebat mons; formidabat Jupiter; ille vero murem peperit.” (“The mountain laboured, Jupiter stood aghast, and a mouse ran out.”) Agesilaos replied, “You call me a mouse, but I will soon show you I am a lion.”