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.
双语例句
1. He signed up as a steward with P&O Lines.
他签约了P&O航运公司，成为了一名乘务员。
来自柯林斯例句
2. Q comes between P and R in the English alphabet.
英语字母表中，Q在P和R之间。
来自《权威词典》
3. At approxi-mately 11:30 p.m., Pollard finally gave his consent to the search.
大概晚上11点半的时候，波拉德最终同意进行搜查。
来自柯林斯例句
4. At about 4.30 p.m. Audrey arrived at the office.
大约下午4点30分，奥德丽到了办公室。
来自柯林斯例句
5. By the third lap Kinkead had touched 289 m.p.h.