Chapter Polydore to Pope of P by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Polydore to Pope

Polydore (3 syl.). The name assumed by Guiderius, in Shakespeare's Cymbeline.

Polypheme (3 syl.). One of the Cyclops, who lived in Sicily. He was an enormous giant, with only one eye, and that in the middle of his forehead. When Ulysses landed on the island, this monster made him and twelve of his crew captives; six of them he ate, and then Ulysses contrived to blind him, and make good his escape with the rest of the crew. Polypheme was most passionately in love with Galate'a, a sea-nymph, but Galate'a had set her heart on the shepherd Acis, whom Polypheme, in a fit of jealousy, crushed beneath a rock.
   In the gallery of the Farnese palace is a superb painting of Polyphemus, in three parts; (1) playing a flute to Galatea; (2) burling a rock at Acis; and (3) pursuing the ships of Ulysses. Poussin has also introduced, in one of his landscapes, Polyphemus sitting on a rock and playing a flute.

Poma Alcinoo Dare (2 syl.). (See Alcinoo .)

Pomatum So called because it was originally made by macerating over-ripe apples in grease. (Dr. John Quiney: Lexicon Physico-Medicum, 1723.)

Pommard (French). Beer. This is a pun on the word pomme. The Normans called cider pommé; whence pomat, a sort of beer.

“Ils tiennent leure chaloupes ... bien pourvues ou garnies de pain, de vin, de pomat, cidre, outre d'autre boisson. ...”- Cleirac: Les Us et Coutumes de la Mer, p. 127.

Pommel The pommel of a saddle is the apple of it, called by the French pommeau. The Spaniards use the expression pomo de espada (the pommel of a sword). To “pommel a person” is to beat him with the pommel of your sword. The ball used as an ornament on pointed roofs is termed a pomel. (Latin, pomum, an apple.)

Pomona Fruit; goddess of fruits and fruit-trees — one of the Roman divinities. (Latin, pomum.)

“Bade the wide fabric unimpaired sustain
Pomona's store, and cheese, and golden grain.”
Bloomfield: Farmer's Boy.

Pompadour as a colour, is claret purple. The 56th Foot is called the Pompadours, from the claret facings of their regimental uniforms. There is an old song supposed to be an elegy on John Broadwood, a Quaker, which introduces the word:-

“Sometimes he wore an old brown coat,
Sometimes a pompadore.
Sometimes 't was buttoned up behind.
And sometimes down before.”

Pompey A generic name for a black footman, as Abigail used to be of a lady's maid. Moll or Molly is a cook; Betty, a housemaid; Sambo, a black “buttons;” etc. One of Hood's jokes for a list of library books was, Pompeii; or, Memoirs of a Black Footman, by Sir W. Gill. (Sir W. Gell wrote a book on Pompeii.) Pompey is also a common name for a dog.

Pompey's Pillar in Alexandria. A pillar erected by Publius, Prefect of Egypt, in honour of the Emperor Diocletian, to record the conquest of Alexandria in 296. It has about as much right to be called Pompey's pillar as the obelisk of Heliopolis, re-erected by Rameses II. at Alexandria, has to be called Cleopatra's Needle, or Gibraltar Rock to be called a Pillar of Hercules.
   Pompey's pillar is a Corinthian column nearly 100 feet high, the shaft being of red granite.

Pompilia The bride of Count Guido Franceschini, who is brutally treated by him, but makes her escape under the protection of a young priest, named Caponsacchi. She subsequently gives birth to a son, but is stabbed to death by her husband. (Robert Browning: The Ring and the Book.) (See Ring .)

Pongo The terrible monster of Sicily. A cross between a “land-tiger and sea-shark.” He devoured five hundred Sicilians, and left the island for twenty miles round without inhabitant. This amphibious monster was slain by the three sons of St. George. (The Seven Champions of Christendom, iii. 2.) A loose name for African anthropoid apes.

Ponocrates (4 syl.). Gargantua's tutor, in the romance of Pantagruel' and Gargantua, by Rabelais.