432 
P I K 
ment, and perhaps piggefnie, in vulgar language, only 
means ocellus, (little eye,) the eyes of a pig being remark¬ 
ably fmall. Tyrwhilt. —There is good reafon for this 
etymology which efcaped Mr. Tyrwhitt’s notice, (as it 
has iince that of Mr. Douce,) if it can be Ihown that the 
word has been written pigfeye, and that this term of 
endearment was not confined to girls. And this a learned 
correfpondent has enabled me to do, in the citation from 
the tranflated work of bilhop Gardiner. Todd. —“ In 
the face of all quotations from all obfolete vocabularies, 
(fays our lamented friend the Etymological Gleaner,) I 
maintain that pigfney means exafily what the French 
exprefs by nez de cochon, pig's fnout. There is no an- 
fvvering for all the nonfenlical appellations which doating 
men and women beltow upon the objefls of their love. 
The French have Mon chat. My cat, Mon choux, My cab¬ 
bage, as their mod: endearing words. Burton feems to 
have underftood it in that fenfe: fee the pafl'age quoted 
below.”] A word of endearment.—She was a primerole, 
a piggefnie. Chaucer. —What prate ye, pretty pyggys ny. 
Skelton’s Poems. —How pretely fhe could talke to him, 
Howe doth my fwete heart, what fayth novvne pigs eie l 
Bp. Gardiner's De Ohed. Tr. (1553.)—Pretty diminutives, 
pleafant names, may be Invented; bird, moufe, lamb, 
pufs, pigeon, pigfney, kid, honey ! Burton’s Anat. of Mel. 
—It is ufed by Butler for the eye of a woman : 
Shine upon me but benignly 
With that one and that other pigfney. Hiulibras. 
PIG'TAIL,^ A queue ; the hair tied behind in a ribbon 
foas to refemble the tail of a pig. A low expreJJion.—A 
kind of twilled tobacco, having a fimilar refemblance. 
A ludicrous term.—I bequeath to Mr. John Grattan, 
prebendary of Clonmethan, my iilver box in which the 
freedom of the city of Corke was prefented to me ; in 
which I defire the faid John to keep the tobacco he 
ufually cheweth, called pigtail. Swift's Will. 
PIGWAK'KET, a river of Maine, which runs into 
the Saco : five miles foutli of the town of Pigwakket. 
PIGWAK'KET, a town of America, in the diftrift of 
Maine : twenty-feven miles north-weft of Portland. 
PIGWID'GEON, f. This word is ufed by Drayton as 
the name of a fairy, and is a kind of cant word for any 
thing petty or fmall : 
Where is the Stoick can his wrath appeafe, 
To fee his country fick of Pym’s difeafe; 
By Scotch invafion to be made a prey 
To fuch pigwidgeon- myrmidons as they ? Cleaveland. 
PI'HA-HI'ROTH, [Heb. the mouth or opening of 
Hiroth.] A mouth or narrow pafs between two moun¬ 
tains, called Chiroth, or Biruth, and lying not far from 
the bottom of the weftern coaft of the Arabian gulf; 
before which mouth the children of Ifrael encamped, juft 
before their entering the Red Sea. Exod. xiv. 2. See 
Maundrel, edit. 1&10. p. 229. 
PIH'LAIS, a town of Sweden, in the government of 
Wafa: eighty-three miles fouth of Wafa. 
PIH'LERN, a town of Auftria: three miles fouth-weft 
of Steyr. 
PIHTIPU'DAS, a town of Sweden, in the government 
of Wafa : 105 miles eaft of Wafa. 
PIKE, J'. [from peak, a point; or pic, a very ancient 
word, preferved in Picas, the woodpecker, pica, the 
magpie, &c.] The fifh called hrochet by the French, his 
fnout being (harp, like a broche or lpit; and, as the fpit 
reminds us of the jack which fets it in motion, this fifh is 
fometimes called a jack. It is the Esox Indus of fyfte- 
raatic writers; the word Indus originating from the Greek 
Xvko?, Xvkcuoz, like a wolf, for the pike is the wolf of frefh 
water. Pope calls him “ the tyrant of the floods.”—In a 
pond into which were put feveral fifh and two pikes, 
upon drawing it fome years afterwards there were left 
no fifh, but the pikes grown to a prodigious fize, having 
devoured the other fifh and their numerous fpawn. Hide. 
P I K 
—It is faid that the pike was introduced into England ir? 
the reign of Henry VIII. in 1537, when it was fold for 
double the price of a houfe-lamb in February. Befides 
fifh and frogs, which are its ufual food, it will devour the 
water-rat and young ducks. It is very remarkable for 
longevity : we read of one that was ninety years old ; 
and of another, that was not lefs than 267 years old. 
Chambers. 
PIKE, f. [pique, Fr.] An oflfenfive weapon, confiding 
of a wooden (haft, twelve or fourteen feet long, with a 
flat fteel head, pointed, called the fpear. This inftru- 
ment was long in ufe among the infantry; but now the 
bayonet, which is fixed on the muzzle of the firelock, is 
iubftituted in its Head. 
Phny fays, the Lacedaemonians were the inventors of 
the pike. The Macedonian phalanx was evidently a bat¬ 
talion of pike-men. A length correfponding to nearly 
twenty Englifh feet for the Grecian and Macedonian pike 
feems almoft incredible ; yet all the claffical tafticians 
agree in the ftatement. Ailian, in his Tactics, addreffed 
to the emperor Adrian, fays, that in the old phalanx it 
had been twenty-one feet in length, but had been much 
fhortened when he wrote. Polybius, a better authority, 
ftates, that though the pike had been originally above 
twenty feet long, it was early reduced to abouteighteen ; 
and that the foldiers held it, at the charge, about five feet 
from the blunt end, as a poife to its weight in front. 
This would make a projeftion before the front rank of 
about twelve feet. The whole length of the modern 
pike was not more than this. Quarterly Review, N° xlix. 
Father Daniel fays, that pikes are not mentioned in 
the hiftories of France before the reign of Louis XI. 
Pikes were introduced into France'by the Switzers. The 
ufe of the pike was abolifhed in France by a royal ordon- 
nance, iffued in the year 1703 ; and, though the exact 
period when pikes were laid afide in England has not 
been afeertained, it appears by the “ Gentleman’s Dic¬ 
tionary/’ publilhed in 1705, that the alteration of the 
pike for the mufket muft have taken place fome time be¬ 
tween the years 1690 and 1705. 
Half- Pike, the weapon carried by an officer of foot. 
It differs from a pike, becaufe it is but eight or nine feet 
long, and the fpear is fmaller and narrower. 
PIKE 5i /! A name given in fome counties to a prong, 
or what is generally called a fork, ufed for carrying 
ftraw, See. from the barn, cocking of hay, See. —Let 11s 
revenge this with our pikes, ere we become rakes; for I 
fpeak this in hunger for bread, not for revenge. Shake- 
fpeare. 
A rake for to rake up the fitches that lie, 
A pike to pike them up handlome to drie. Tujfer. 
A peak ; a point.—The whole compafs of this mountain 
is efteemed to be about 160 miles. The high pique or 
peer thereof is properly called Athos. Ricaut’s State of • 
the Greek Church. — It was ordained in the Parliament of 
Weltminfter, anno 1463, “that no man vveare flioes or 
boots having pikes pafling two inches in length.” 
Bryant on Rowley's Poems. —Among turners, two iron 
lprigs between which any thing to be turned is faftened 
—Hard wood, prepared for the lathe with rafping, they 
pitch between the pikes. Moxon. 
PI'KE D,adj. Sharp; acuminated; ending in a point. 
In Shakefpeare it is ufed of a man with a pointed beard, 
Dr. Johnfon fays, citing the paffage below; in which, 
however, it is fuppofed by later commentators to mean 
merely picked, or fpruce in drefs. See Picked. —Their 
flioes and pattens are fnouted and piked more than a 
finger long. Camden's Remains. 
Why then I fuck my teeth, and catechife 
My piked man of countries. Shakefpedre’s K. John. 
PI'KELAND, a town of America, in Pennfylvania and 
county of Chelter, containing 1001 inhabitants. 
P l'KELET, or Pi'kelin,j; In the North of England, 
a light 
