| A | B |
|---|
| proactive | Of persons or policies as an opposition to reactive |
| proboscis | elephant's trunk lit. "means for taking food" |
| procession | a marching onward |
| proem | brief introduction prelude |
| profane | unholy not consecrated lit. "out in front of the temple |
| profer | to bring forth or produce or utter |
| profess | having declared publicly |
| proficiency | accomplish or make progress or be useful |
| profligate | to cast down or defeat or ruin or recklessly extravagant via notion of "ruined by vice" |
| progeny | descendants or offspring |
| prognosis | forecast of the probable course of a disease |
| prognostication | foreknowing. Medieval usage of "sign to forecast weather" |
| prologue | literally "a speech beforehand" |
| promnesia | scientific name for the phenomenon of déjà vu |
| propane | colorless gas occurring in petroleum in reference to its being first in order of the fatty acids. |
| propensity | disposition to favor |
| property | nature or quality |
| prophet | an interpreter or spokesman |
| prophylactic | a medicine or treatment to prevent disease |
| propitiation | render favorable. The sense is perhaps because the word originally was religious lit. "a falling or rushing toward" hence "eager" and of the gods "well-disposed." |
| proponent | one who brings forth a proposition or argument |
| proposition | a setting forth as a topic for discussion |
| proscribe | publish as having forfeited one's property or ro condemn and outlaw before the world |
| proselyte | convert a stranger. One who has come over |
| prostitute | indiscriminately offered |
| protestation | avowal oe declaration |
| expropriation | renunciation of worldly goods |
| improvident | lack of foresight or rashness |
| improvisation | not foreseen or unforeseen or unexpected |
| propitious | presenting favorable conditions |
| parallel | beside one another |
| parallax | to alter oe make things alternate |
| parasol | protection from the sun |
| parameter | boundary or limit or characteristic factor |
| paraphrase | to tell in other words |
| paragraph | sign for start of a new section of discourse |
| paraplegia | paralysis of one side of the body |
| paragon | to test on a touchstone or compare |
| parasite | a hanger-on or a toady or person who lives on others |
| parachute | that which protects against a fall |
| paradox | statement that is seemingly self-contradictory yet not illogical or obviously untrue |
| paradigm | a pattern or example |
| paranoia | mental disorder characterized by systematized delusions |
| paraphernalia | a woman's property besides her dowry |
| parable | saying or story in which something is expressed in terms of something else |
| paramedical | related to medicine in an auxiliary capacity |
