682 
P L E 
Fruitful; fertile.—Take up the fifth part of the land in 
the feven plenteous years. Gen. xli. 34. 
PLEN'TEOUSLY, adv. Copioufly; abundantly; ex¬ 
uberantly; plentifully.—God proves us in this life, that 
he may the more plenteoujly reward us in the next. 
Wake's Prep.for Death. 
God created the great whales, and each 
Soul living, each that crept, which plenteoujly 
The waters generated. Milton’s P. L. 
PLENTEOUSNESS,/. Abundance; fertility ; plenty. 
—The feven years of plenteoufnefs in Egypt were ended. 
Gen. xli. 53. 
PLEN'TIFUL, adj. Copious; abundant; exuberant; 
fruitful.—To Amalthea he gave a country bending 
like a horn; whence the tale of Amalthea’s plentiful 
horn. Ralegh. —If it be a long winter, it is commonly a 
more plentiful year. Bacon’s Nat. Hijl. — Alcibiades was a 
young man of noble birth, excellent education,,and a 
plentiful fortune. Swift. 
PLENTIFULLY, adv. Copioufly ; abundantly.— 
Bern is plentifully furniflted with water, there being a 
great multitude of fountains. Addifon on Italy. 
PLENTIFULNESS, f. The ftate of being plentiful; 
abundance; fertility.—The right natural definition of a 
wife habit, is nothing elfe but a plentifulnefs and prompt- 
nefs, in the ltorehoufe of the mind, of clear imagi¬ 
nations well fixed. Wotton's Survey of Education. 
PLENTY, /. [plente, old Fr. from plcnus full, Lat. 
“The plentee of faith.” Wickliffe. Heb. x.] Abundance; 
fuch a quantity as is more than enough.—What makes 
land, as well as other things, dear, is plenty of buyers, 
and but few fellers ; and fo plenty of fellers and few buy¬ 
ers makes land cheap. Locke. 
Peace, 
Dear nurfe of arts, plenties, and joyful birth. Shakefpeare. 
Fruitfulnefs; exuberance: 
The teeming clouds 
Defcend in gladfome plenty o’er the world. Thomfon. 
It is ufed, I think barbaroufly, for plentiful. Johnfon. — 
If reafons were as plenty as blackberries, I would give no 
man a reafon on compullion. Shakefpeare's Hen. IV. 
To grafs with thy calves, 
Where water is plenty. TuJJer’s Hujhandry. 
A ftate in which enough is had and enjoyed.—Ye (hall 
eat in plenty and be fatisfied, and praife the Lord. Joel, 
ii. 26. 
Whole grievance is fatiety of eafe, 
Freedom their pain, and plenty their difeafe. Harte. 
PLE'NUM, [Lat. full.] In phyfics, a term ufed to 
flgnify that ftate of things, in which every part of fpace, 
or extenfion, is fuppoled to be full of matter. It is 
ufed in oppoiition to a vacuum, which is a fpace fuppofed 
devoid of all matter.—The Cartefians adhere firmly to 
the doftrine of an abfolute plenum. This they do on 
this principle, that the eflence of matter confifts in ex¬ 
tenfion ; and hence, indeed, the confequence is very eafy, 
that, wherever there is fpace or extenfion, there is alfo 
matter. But this principle we have elfewhere ftiown to 
be falfe; and, therefore, the confequence drawn from it 
falls to the ground. Chambers. 
PLE'ONASM, j\ [ pleonafme , Fr. pleonafmus, Lat. from 
Gr. to abound.] A figure of rhetoric; by 
which more words are ufed than are neceflary; as “I 
faw' it with my own eyes." —The pleonafm, as ufed by 
thefe noble authors, is fo far from obfcuring or flattering 
the difcourfe, that it makes the fenfe intelligible and 
clear, and heightens the emphafis of the expreflion. 
Blachwall’s Sacr. Claffics. 
PLEONAS'TICAL, adj. Belonging to the pleonafm ; 
redundant.—The particle h is pleonajlical in Afts xi. 17. 
and we may believe for that reafon is not found in feveral 
manufcripts and verfions; but, being in the major part, 
it ought to be retained in the text, efpecially fince it is 
P L E 
pleonaftical in the moll authentic and noble writers. 
BlachwalVs Sacr. Claffics. 
PLEON AS'TICALLY, adv. Redundantly. — The 
nobleft claflics ufe this particle pleonajlically. Blackwall’s 
Sacr. Claffics. 
PLEROPH'ORY, f. [from the Gr. wTwjgiif, full, and 
$>(ov, to bear.} Firm perfuafion.—A plerophory of Anti- 
clirill’s falfe do£frine. Shelforcl's Learned Bifcourfes, 
1635.— How have we known prefumptuous fpirits that 
have thought themfelves carried with a plerophory of 
faith, when their fails have been fwelled only with the 
wind of their own (elf-love. Bp. Hall’s Rem. —Abraham 
had a plerophory, that, what was promifed, God was able 
to perforin. Barrow. 
PLERO'SIS, f. [from Gr. to fill up.] A word 
ufed by the old Greeks to exprefs the repletion or re- 
ftoring the body to its natural ftate, after it has been 
emaciated by ficknefs. 
PLEROT'ICS, f Medicines fuited to fill up wounds 
with flefli. A kind of remedies, otherwife called incar- 
natives and farcotics. 
PLE'SA, a fmall town of European Ruffia, fituated on 
the Wolga : fixteen miles fouth of Koltroma. Lat. 57. 
15. N. Ion. 41. 14. E. 
PLES'CHEN, a town of Pruflian Poland, feventeen 
miles north-north, weft of Kalifch, with 1900 inhabitants. 
PLESH,/. [a word ufed by Spenfer inftead of plajh, 
for the convenience of rhyme.] A puddle ; a boggy 
niarfh: 
Out of the wound the red blood flowed frefh. 
That underneath his feet foon made a purple plejh. 
Spenfer. 
PLESH'Y, or Plashy, a village and parifh in the 
hundred of Dunmow, Eflex, though now containing, ac¬ 
cording to the parliamentary returns, only 46 houfes, and 
221 inhabitants, was a place of diftinguifhed confe¬ 
quence in ancient times-. Gough and Morant are both 
of opinion that it was the feite of a Roman ftation, from 
the number of urns and Roman bricks which have been 
dug up here, and from the boldnefs and regularity of the 
entrenchment furrounding the village : the vallum of 
this work is ftill very perfedt on three fides, and appears 
to have had four original entrances through it into the 
inclofed area. 
The authentic hiftory of this place does not commence 
till the reign of king Stephen, when we are informed 
that it was vefted in the crown by the king’s marriage 
with Maud, grand-daughter of Euftace earl of Boulogne, 
by whom it is probable the caftle was firft eretted. 
Stephen granted it to William de Magnaville, high con- 
ftable of England, who procured licenfe to fortify the 
caftle from Henry II. Hence we conjecture that he was 
the perfon who conftruifted the fofie, as well as the 
immenle keep, which remains to this day a proud monu¬ 
ment of the ancient grandeur and ftrength of this once- 
majeftic fortrefs. The keep is oval, and meafures about 
890 feet in circumference, and forty-five paces in breadth 
at the top. Humphrey de Bohun, earl of Hereford, 
having fucceeded to the eftate and honours of the Mag- 
navilles, obtained leave of Edward I. to enlarge his park 
at Pleftiy, by inclofing 130 additional acres. In this 
family the caftle and manor continued till the year 1372, 
when Thomas of Woodltock, afterwards duke of Glou- 
cefter, became poflefled of them, and of the dignity of 
high conftable, by his marriage with Eleanor, eldeft 
daughter and co-heirefs of Humphrey, the laft male heir 
of the Bohuns. This nobleman, whofe bufy life and 
tragical fate form confpicuous features in the hiftory of 
England, w'as decoyed from the caftle by his nephew', 
king Richard II. and treacheroufly put to death. Plefliy, 
after that event, devolved to Edmund earl of Stafford, in 
right of Anne, the duke’s daughter. It afterwards fell 
to the crown, and w'as annexed to the duchy of Lancafter. 
From that period the caftle feems to have been totally 
neglected. 
