The history and antiquities of Boston, and the villages of Skirbeck, Fishtoft, Freiston, Butterwick, Benington, Leverton, Leake, and Wrangle; comprising the hundred of Skirbeck, in the county of Lincoln. Including also a history of the East, West, and Wildmore fens, and copious notices of the Holland or Haut-Huntre fen ... sketches of the geology, natural history, botany, and agriculture of the district; a very extensive collection of archaisms and provincial words, local dialect, phrases, proverbs, omens, superstitions, etc. By Pishey Thompson. Illustrated with one hundred engravings.

718 PROVINCIALISMS.
Perky.-Forward, intrusive, pert.-SPENSER.
Pet.-A favourite; " My pretty pets." —DoNNE.
Pewitt, or Pywipe. —The plover. —SILTON: called the wypes in the PERiY
Household Book (1512); wypa, SWEDISH at this time.
Pick (to). —" Pick it down;" pitch it down.
Pillion.-A seat fixed on a horse to a saddle, for a female to sit on, behind
a man.
Pin (to).-" I pinned him down;" fixed him to a point.
Pinch-gut. —A miserly person.
Pind (to).-To place stray animals in the pinfold, or pound. A. S., pyndan,
to inclose.
Pinder.-The parish officer, or impounder.
Pine (to).-To starve, famish; to languish for want of anything.
Pinfold.-The parish pound.
Pingle. —A small piece of ground. A croft. —RAY.
Pink.-The chaffinch. —SKELToN, vol. ii. 229.
Pinking-eyed John. —The pansy, Viola tricolor. Young women with "little
eyes" were formerly called "pink-eyed girls." See NAREs, 595.
Pips, or Peeps.-The spots on cards. Seeds of apples, pears, &c. DANISH,
Pindan. A separate blossom of a flower, when they grow in clusters, is
called a pip or peep.
Pismire. —An ant. DANISH, myre, ant.
Pit (to).-To place in opposition to each other, as men to debate, dogs, &c., to
fight.
Plain. —" A very plain woman;" homely.
Planets.-Rain falling partially is said to fall in planets.
Planet-ruled. —An astrological casting of a nativity, showing what planets had
rule or power at the time of birth.
Planet-stroke.-A stroke of paralysis.
Planet-struck.-Affected by the malignant influence of a planet, with paralysis,
insanity, or other calamity. See NARES, p. 598.
Plash (to).-To plash a hedge is to cut out much of the branches, &c., and
interweave the remainder with stakes, &c., so as to make it a secure fence,
and rapidly produce young wood.
Playing-up.-Playing boisterously, or making a deal of noise about anything.
Play-laking. — He's my play-laking;" play-fellow. See Laking.
Plough-boys.-Countrymen, who go about dressed in ribbon, &c., as Morris
(Moorish) dancers on Plough Monday, perform the sword-dance, &c. One
is dressed as "Maid Marion," and is called the witch, another in rags, and
is called the fool, &c. &c.
Pluck.-" A man of pluck;" courage. The heart, liver, &c., of an animal,
probably from the DANISH, pluk.
Pluck a crow.-To pick a quarrel; used by FoRD.
Plunket (a).-A wooden vessel of a particular shape to hold yeast. RAY calls
it a benkit.
Plux.-A word used to drive chickens away.
Pockard.-Marked with the small-pox; probably puckered. Pock-arrs, marks
made by the small-pox. —RAY, 1674.
Poke (a).-A bag or sack, or a playful push on the back or side.
Porringer. —A small coarse earthen vessel, with a loop-handle at the side.
Potter (to).-To go about anything inefficiently.
Power.-" It did him a power of good;" great good. "There was a power of
people;" great many.