a rare letter in the initial position in Germanic, in part because by Grimm's Law PIE p- became Germanic f-; even with the early Latin borrowings in Old English, -p- takes up a little over 4 pages in J.R. Clark Hall's "Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary," compared to 31 pages for B and more than 36 for F. But it now is the third-most-common initial letter in the English vocabulary, and with C and S comprises nearly a third of the dictionary, a testimony to the flood of words that have entered the language since 1066 from Latin, Greek, and French.
To mind one's Ps and Qs (1779), possibly is from confusion of these letters among children learning to write. Another theory traces it to old-time tavern-keepers tracking their patrons' bar tabs in pints and quarts. But see also to be P and Q (1610s), "to be excellent," a slang phrase said to derive from prime quality.
雙語例句
1. He signed up as a steward with P&O Lines.
他簽約了P&O航運公司，成為了一名乘務員。
來自柯林斯例句
2. Q comes between P and R in the English alphabet.
英語字母表中，Q在P和R之間。
來自《權威詞典》
3. At approxi-mately 11:30 p.m., Pollard finally gave his consent to the search.
大概晚上11點半的時候，波拉德最終同意進行搜查。
來自柯林斯例句
4. At about 4.30 p.m. Audrey arrived at the office.
大約下午4點30分，奧德麗到了辦公室。
來自柯林斯例句
5. By the third lap Kinkead had touched 289 m.p.h.