The Thirty-Nine Steps (44 page)

particular, a London
PHRASE
London in Victorian times and up to the 1950s was famous for having very dense fog
– which was a combination of real fog and the smog of pollution from factories
This is a London particular
…
A fog, miss’
(
Bleak House
by Charles Dickens)

patten
NOUN
pattens were wooden soles which were fixed to shoes by straps to protect the shoes
in wet weather
carrying a basket like the Great Seal of England in plaited straw, a pair of pattens,
a spare shawl, and an umbrella, though it was a fine bright day
(
Great Expectations
by Charles Dickens)

paviour
NOUN
a paviour was a labourer who worked on the street pavement
the paviour his pickaxe
(
Oliver Twist
by Charles Dickens)

peccant
ADJ
peccant means unhealthy
other peccant humours
(
Gulliver’s Travels
by Jonathan Swift)

penetralium
NOUN
penetralium is a word used to describe the inner rooms of the house
and I had no desire to aggravate his impatience previous to inspecting the penetralium
(
Wuthering Heights
by Emily Brontë)

pensive
ADV
pensive means deep in thought or thinking seriously about something
and she was leaning pensive on a tomb-stone on her right elbow
(
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain)

penury
NOUN
penury is the state of being extremely poor
Distress, if not penury, loomed in the distance
(
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
by Thomas Hardy)

perspective
NOUN
telescope
a pocket perspective
(
Gulliver’s Travels
by Jonathan Swift)

phaeton
NOUN
a phaeton was an open carriage for four people
often
condescends to drive by my humble abode in her little phaeton and ponies
(
Pride and Prejudice
by Jane Austen)

phantasm
NOUN
a phantasm is an illusion, something that is not real. It is sometimes used to mean
ghost
Experience had bred no fancies in him that could raise the phantasm of appetite
(
Silas Marner
by George Eliot)

physic
NOUN
here physic means medicine
there I studied physic two years and seven months
(
Gulliver’s Travels
by Jonathan Swift)

pinioned
VERB
to pinion is to hold both arms so that a person cannot move them
But the relentless Ghost pinioned him in both his arms, and forced him to observe
what happened next
. (
A Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens)