penumbral 
4382 
penumbral (pe-num'bral), a. [< penumbra + ing or cleaning pens after use. Pen-wipers are 
-al.~] Pertaining to or resembling a penumbra, often made up into ornaments more or less 
This brightness of the inner penumbra seems to be due elaborate. 
to the crowding together of the penumbral Moments where penwoman (pen'wum"an), . ; pi. penu'o/iii/i 
they overhang the umbra. C. A. Yuuny, The Sun, p. 116. (. w i m /> en ). A woman who writes with a pen ; a 
Penumbral eclipse, an eclipse of the moon in which 
the moon enters the penumbra of the earth but not the 
shadow. 
penumbrous (pe-num'brus), a. [< penumbra 
female writer; an authoress. 
Hard work is not fit for a penwoman. Johnson. 
Why, love, you have not written already ! You have, I 
protest ! what a ready penwoman .' 
Richardson, Clarissa Harlowe, I. 329. (Dairies.) 
+ -o,s-.] Of, pertaining to, or resembling a 
penumbra ; penumbra-like ; partially dark. 
In the penumbrous dulness I discerned a mass of white peon (pe'on), n. [< Sp. peon Pg. peao,a, foot- 
soldier, a day-laborer, a pedestrian, = OF. 
the pei 
rock leading to the higher level. 
W. Holman Hunt, Contemporary Rev., LII. 24. 
puon, 
a foot-sol 
F. 
a pawn (in 
want ; stricken with poverty ; indigent. 
Thus he runs on his course, til 's drunken vaine 
Ruines his substance, makes him entertaine 
For his companion penurious want. 
Tim 
/*(/, i/urit, a, J.WI/-DVJIUIOL, i' . j/(i/, a |jawii ^uj 
penurious (pe-mi'ri-us), a. [< penury + -*.] chess), < ML. pedo(n-), a foot-soldier, < L. e 
1. Pertaining to or characterized by penury or (ped-) = E. foot: see pedal, etc. Cf. pawn*, a 
doublet of peon."] 1. A day-laborer ; specifical- 
ly, in Spanish America, a species of serf, com- 
pelled to work for his creditor until his debts 
Rare paid. 2. In India: (a) A foot-soldier. (6) 
mes Whistle (E. E. T. S.), p. 62. 
Better a penurious Kingdom then where excessive 
wealth flowes into the gracelesse and injurious hands of 
common sponges to the impoverishing of good and loyall 
men. Milton, Reformation in Eng., ii. 
2. Niggard; scanty; not bountiful or liberal. 
Here creeps along a poor penurious stream, 
That fondly bears Scamander's mighty name. 
Pitt, JEneld, iii. 
I ever held a scanty and penurious justice to partake of 
. 
A messenger; an attendant or orderly. 
Pandurang is by turns a servant to a shop-keeper, a peon 
or orderly, a groom to an English officer. 
Saturday Rev., May 31, 1873. (Yule and Burnett.) 
(c) A native constable or policeman. 3. In 
chess, a piece representing a footman ; a pawn, 
peonage (pe'on-aj), n. [< peon + -age.'] A 
form of servitude existing in Spanish America. 
. , It prevailed especially in Mexico. 
the nature of a wrong. Burke, To a noble Lord, peonia (pe-o'ni-a), II. [Sp., < peon, a foot-sol- 
3. Excessively saving or sparing in the use of dier: see peon.] In Spanish America, a land- 
money; parsimonious to a fault; sordid: as, a measure, not now used and not well defined in 
penurious man. extent. Originally it comprised the land given to a foot- 
We should serve him as a grudging master, soldier in a conquered country supposed to be as much 
As a penurious niggard of his wealth. M could be cultivated by one man. 
Milton, Comus, 1. 726. peonism (pe'on-izm), n. [< peon + -ism.'] The 
I dainty. , state or condition of a peon ; peonage. 
Good lord ! what can my lady mean, peony (pe'o-ni), . ; pi. peonies (-uiz). [Former- 
Conversing with that rusty dean ! ] y a,l aO pasony, after L. ; a\sopiony, early mod. E. 
She 's grown so nice, and so penurious, 
With Socrates and Epicurius. 
How could she sit the live-long day, 
Yet never ask us once to play? 
Swift, Panegyrick on the Dean. 
pionee, AM. piny, <ME. pione, pioine, pianie, pl- 
ane, < OF. peone, pioine, F. pivoine = Sp. peonia 
= Pg. It. peonia = AS. peonia (after L.),< L. px- 
onia, ML. also peonia, < Gr. imiuvia, the peony, 
comprises strong-growing 
y e a soen- 
ing of close-fisted, niggardly is the least limited to money, 
andhas the most to do with others; it expresses a meanly 
ion peony i ., 
medicine, and still has some repute as a nervine. 
parsimonious treatment of others I a neglectful, self-'defeat 5 ^ P e Ople (pe'pl), n. [Early mod. E. also peple; 
tag, or stingy saving. ^Stingy^ expresses the most of op- ' ME. pepte, pepill, people, peopell, peopyll, poe- 
Elizabeth 
calle 
or unreasonable parsimony in giving or providing. Mean 
shows a tendency toward emphasizing the idea of a close 
or narrow and mean-spirited handling of money. See 
penuriously (pe-nu'ri-us-li), ado. In a penuri- 
ous or parsimonious manner; with scanty sup- 
p'-y- 
C'e, peuple, puple (the spelling wltb/oe or eo 
ing intended to render the OF. diphthong), 
people, = MHG. povel, povel, bovel, G. pobel = 
Dan. Sw. pobel, the populace, mob, rabble, < 
OF. pueple, pople, F. peuple = Pr. pobol, poble 
polo, < L. populus, the people, the populace; 
appar. a redupl. of *pul, "pie in plebs, the peo- 
No age is unduly favored, none penuriously depressed. 
De Quincey, Essenes, i. 
penuriousness (pe-nu'ri-us-nes), n. The state 
or character of being penurious in any sense ; 
especially, parsimony; a sordid disposition to 
save money. 
penury (pen'u-ri), n. [< ME. penury, < OF. 
penurie, F. penurie = Sp. Pg. It. penuria, < L. 
penuria, pxnuria, want, scarcity; cf. Gr. ireim, 
hunger, mvia, need, Tret^c, poor, TTOVOC , toil, 
community, tribe, race, or nation: as, the peo- 
pie of England ; the people of Israel. [In this 
sense the word takes the indefinite article, and 
admits of the plural torn*, peoples.] 
MandevOle, Travels, p. 106. 
A blisful lyf, a paisible and a swete, 
Ledden the peples in the former age. 
Chaucer, Former Age, L 2. 
ness. 
He [Sesostris] caused many trenches to be cut thorow 
the land, and some of them navigable. Whereby unpro- 
fitable marisheswere drained, the countrey strengthened 
. . . and such places relieved as laboured with the penury 
Sandys, Trayailes, p. 83. 
2. Extreme poverty; want; indigence. 
Age, ache, penury, and imprisonment. 
Shak., M. for M., iii. 1. ISO. 
Clive saw clearly that it was absurd to give men power 
and to require them to live in penury. 
It ** 
3t. 
peopler 
as, the king and the people ; one of tlie people; 
the darling of the people. 
With glosynges and with gabbyngs he gylede the peuple. 
Piers Plowman (C), xxiii. 125. 
In other things the knowing artist may 
Judge better than the people, but a play 
Made for delight, 
If you approve it not, has no excuse. 
Waller, Prol. to Maid's Tragedy. 
The popular leaders (who in all ages have called them- 
selves the people) began to grow insolent. 
Blaclcstone, Com., IV. xxxiii. 
The people are the only censors of their governors : and 
even their errors will tend to keep these to the true prin- 
ciples of their institution. To punish these errors too se- 
verely would be to suppress the only safeguard of the pub- 
lic liberty. Jefferson, Correspondence, II. 85. 
3. Those who are closely connected with a per- 
son as subjects, domestics, attendants, follow- 
ers, etc. ; also, one's family, relatives, etc. : as, 
a pastor and his people. 
Where-thurghthe kynges lege peopell scholde be dis- 
ceuyd. English Gttds(E. E. T. S.), p. 332. 
And wh&tpeopyll they brought among them three, 
Mynne Auctour seith it is a wonder to see. 
Generydes (E. E. T. S.), 1. 1967. 
A stranger may go in with the consul's dragoman or in- 
terpreter, and, being conducted afterwards to the Pasha's 
coffee room, is civilly entertain 'd by his people with sweet- 
meats and coflee. Pococke, Description of the East, I. 33. 
In the evening we came to an anchor on the eastern shore 
nearly opposite to EsmS. Some of our people had landed 
to shoot, trusting to a turn of the river that is here, which 
would enable them to keep up with us. 
Bruce, Source of the Nile, I. 141. 
4. Persons; any persons indefinitely; men: a 
collective noun taking a verb in the plural, and 
admitting in colloquial use a numeral adjective : 
as, people may say what they please ; a number 
of country people were there ; people of fashion ; 
there were not ten people present. 
Might neuer men doo better on a day ther, 
Thanne they dede ther, so tewe pepill as the! were. 
Generydes (E. E. T. S.), 1. 2860. 
Merlin com to Bandemagn as soone as he was departed 
fro Nabulall and badde hym sende to the hoste the gret- 
test people that he myght. Merlin (E. E. T. S.), iii. 666. 
He is so couragious of himselfe that he is come to the 
field with little people. 
King Arthur, 1. 119, quoted in Wright's Bible Word-Book. 
And Edom came out against him with much people, and 
with a strong hand. Num. xx. 20. 
Like one of two contending in a prize, 
That thinks he hath done well in people's eyes. 
Shale., M. of V., iii. 2. 143. 
People were tempted to lend by great premiums and 
large interest. Sni/t, Misc. 
They are doing a very unfashionable thing, for all peo- 
ple of condition are agreed not to admire, nor even to un- 
derstand. Gray, Letters, I. 324. 
5f. Human beings ; men. 
The! be no peple as other be, but it be fendes of helle. 
Merlin (E. E. T. S.), iii. 684. 
6f. A set or crowd ; company. 
What a people of Consaillours he hathe ! 
Quoted in Oliphant's New English, I. 388. 
Abbot of the people. See abbot. Chosen people the 
Israelites ; the Jews. Good people. See good folk, un- 
der good. Houseling peoplet. See hanseling^. Pecu- 
liar People. See peculiar. People's party. See par- 
tyi. = 8vH 1. People, Xalioti, Race, TrOte, Clan. People 
stands for the ruled in distinction from the rulers, as king 
and people, or for the mass of the community, etc., with- 
out thought of any distinction between rulers and ruled. 
The word nation stands for a political body viewed as a 
whole. The unity may be ethnic, instead of political; 
this sense, however, is less common. Race is the most 
common word for all those who seem to make a whole 
in community of descent and are too numerous to be 
called a tribe, clan, or family : as, the Anglo-Saxon race is 
one branch of the Germanic, tracing its descent through 
certain Low German tribes. Tribe, apart from certain pe- 
culiar meanings, stands for a subdivision of a race: as the 
twelve tribes of Israel ; ordinarily the word is not applied 
to civilized persons ; we speak of tribes of Indians, Arabs, 
Africans. Clan is used chiefly of the old organization of 
kinsmen among the Scotch Highlanders; where used of 
others, it expresses a similar organization, with intense 
loyalty and partizanship. 
iei bridcl ther-of grete merveile and grete dispyte 
Merlin (E. E. T. S.X ii. 208. 
The ants are & people not strong, yet they prepare their 
meats in the summer. Prov. xxx. 25. 
By heaven and earth, 
I were much better be a king of beasts 
Than such a people ! 
Beau, and Fl., King and No King, i. 1. 
The French character is now, as it was centuries ago, con- 
trasted in sundry respects with the characters of neigh- 
bouring peoples. 
igh- 
H. Spencer, Prin. of Biol., 80. 
- . ..... , . t. and pp. peopled, ppr. 
peopling. [< F. peupler = Pr. Sp. poblar = Pg. 
povoar = It. popolare, people, populate, < ML. 
populare, inhabit, populate ; from the noun : see 
people, n., and cf. populate.] To stock with 
people or inhabitants; populate. 
Thou didst prevent me ; I had peopled else 
This isle with Calibans. Shale., Tempest, i. 2. 350. 
O'er many States and peopled Towns we pass'd. 
Congreve, Hymn to Venus. 
Many a legend, peopling the dark woods, 
Nourished Imagination in her growth. 
Wordsworth, Excursion, 
peopler (pe'pler), . One who 
