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 Talk Talk - Communication terms
Category: General technical and industrial
Date & country: 28/05/2010, UK
Words: 18630


Pedro I
Emperor of Brazil 1822–31. The son of John VI of Portugal, he escaped to Brazil on Napoleon's invasion, and was appointed regent in 1821. He proclaimed Brazil independent in 1822 and was crowned emperor, but abdicated in 1831 and returned to Portugal

Pedro II
Emperor of Brazil 1831–89. He proved an enlightened ruler, but his antislavery measures alienated the landowners, who compelled him to abdicate

perfume
Fragrant essence used to scent the body, cosmetics, and candles. More than 100 natural aromatic chemicals may be blended from a range of 60,000 flowers, leaves, fruits, seeds, woods, barks, resins, and roots, combined by natural animal fixatives and various synthetics. Favoured ingredients include balsam, civet (from the African civet cat) hyacinth...

perfect competition
In economics, a market in which there are many potential and actual buyers and sellers, each being too small to be an individual influence on the price; there are no barriers to entry or exit; and the products being traded are identical. At the same time, the producers are seeking the maximum profit and consumers the best value for money. C...

petrodollars
In economics, dollar earnings of oil-exporting nations, principally those in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)

personal equity plan
Investment scheme introduced in the UK in 1987. Shares of public companies listed on the UK stock exchange were purchased by PEP managers on behalf of their clients. Up to certain limits, individuals could purchase such shares and, provided they held them for at least a year, enjoyed any capital gains and reinvested dividends tax-free. PEPs wer...

Pelé
Brazilian footballer and the sport's most famous player. A prolific goal scorer, he appeared in four World Cup competitions 1958–70 and led Brazil to three championships (1958, 1962, 1970). Career highlights International appearances (1957–71) 91 (77 goals) World Cup 1958, 1962, 1970 Copa Libertadores 1961–62 Brazilian Cup 1961&#...

pentathlon
(modern) Five-sport competition. Pentathlon consists of former military training pursuits: swimming, fencing, running, horsemanship, and shooting. It has been an Olympic event for men since 1912, but the Sydney 2000 Games were the first Olympics to include a women's event. The firs...

Perry, Fred
(Frederick John) English lawn-tennis player, the last Briton to win the men's singles at Wimbledon, in 1936. He also won the world table-tennis title in 1929. Perry later became a television commentator and a sports-goods manufacturer. Career highlights lawn tennis Wimbledon si...

perverting the course of justice
In law, the criminal offence of acting in such a way as to prevent justice being done. Examples are tampering with evidence, misleading the police or a court, and threatening witnesses or jurors

Pesach
In Judaism, an eight-day spring festival that commemorates the Exodus of the Israelite slaves from Egypt and the ten plagues sent to Egypt by God. In particular, it remembers the passing over, by the Angel of Death, of the Jewish houses, so that only the Egyptian firstborn sons were killed in retribution for the pharaoh's murder of all Jewi...

Perón,
(María Estela) Argentine president 1974–76, and third wife of Juan Perón. She succeeded him after he died in office in 1974 (she had been elected vice president in 1973), but labour unrest, inflation, and political violence pushed the country to the brink of chaos. Accused of co...

perigee
In astronomy, the point at which an object, travelling in an elliptical orbit around the Earth, is at its closest to the Earth. The point at which it is furthest from the Earth is the apogee

perihelion
In astronomy, the point at which an object, travelling in an elliptical orbit around the Sun, is at its closest to the Sun. The point at which it is furthest from the Sun is the aphelion

Persian
Inhabitant of or native to Persia, now Iran, and referring to the culture and the language (see also Farsi). The Persians claim descent from central Asians of southern Russia (Aryans) who are thought to have migrated south into the region around 2000 BC

pension
Organized form of saving for retirement. Pension schemes, which may be government-run or privately administered, involve regular payment for a qualifying period; when the person retires, a payment is made each week or month from the invested pension fund. Pension funds have become influential investors in major industries; 44% of UK...

pessary
Medical device designed to be inserted into the vagina either to support a displaced womb or as a contraceptive. The word is also used for a vaginal suppository used for administering drugs locally, made from glycerol or oil of theobromine, which melts within the vagina to release the contained substance – for example, a contraceptive, antibio...

Pelion
Mountain in Thessaly, Greece, near Mount Ossa; height 1,548 m/5,079 ft. In Greek mythology it was the home of the centaurs, creatures half-human and half-horse

pest
In biology, any insect, fungus, rodent, or other living organism that has a harmful effect on human beings, other than those that directly cause human diseases. Most pests damage crops or livestock, but the term also covers those that damage buildings, destroy food stores, and spread disease

performance art
Type of modern art activity presented before a live audience, and combining elements of the visual arts and the theatrical arts, such as music, video, theatre, and poetry reading. Performance art developed in the 1910s, but flourished in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It often overlaps with other avant-garde forms of expression, particularly b...

Peck,
(Eldred) US film actor. He specialized in strong, upright characters, but also had a gift for light comedy. His films include Spellbound (1945), Duel in the Sun (1946), Gentleman's Agreement (1947), Roman Holiday (...

Peckinpah,
(David) US film director. Mainly westerns, his films usually featured slow-motion, blood-spurting violence. His best work, such as The Wild Bunch (1969), exhibits a magisterial grasp of staging and construction. Other films include The Deadly Companions
personal computer
Click images to enlargeAnother name for microcomputer. The term is also used, more specifically, to mean the IBM Personal Computer and computers compatible with it. The first IBM PC was introduced in the USA in 1981; it had 64 kilobytes of random access memory (RAM) and one floppy-disk drive. It was followed in 19...

pentadactyl limb
Typical limb of the mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. These vertebrates (animals with backbone) are all descended from primitive amphibians whose immediate ancestors were fleshy-finned fish. The limb which evolved in those amphibians had three parts: a `hand/foot` with five digits (fingers/toes), a lower limb conta...

pendulum
Weight (called a `bob`) swinging at the end of a rod or cord. The regularity of a pendulum's swing was used in making the first really accurate clocks in the 17th century. Pendulums can be used for measuring the acceleration due to gravity (an important constant in physics). Specialized pendulums are used to measure velocities (ballis...

petrochemical
Chemical derived from the processing of petroleum (crude oil). Petrochemical industries are those that obtain their raw materials from the processing of petroleum and natural gas. Polymers, detergents, solvents, and nitrogen fertilizers are all major products of the petrochemical industries. Inorganic chemical products include carbon black, sulphur...

petrol
Mixture of hydrocarbons derived from petroleum, mainly used as a fuel for internal-combustion engines. It is colourless and highly volatile. Leaded petrol contains antiknock (a mixture of tetra ethyl lead and dibromoethane), which improves the combustion of petrol and the performance of a car engine. The lead from the exhaust fumes enters the a...

peridotite
Rock consisting largely of the mineral olivine; pyroxene and other minerals may also be present. Peridotite is an ultramafic rock containing less than 45% silica by weight. It is believed to be one of the rock types making up the Earth's upper mantle, and is sometimes brought from the depths to the surface by major movements, or as incl...

pectoral
Relating to the upper area of the thorax associated with the muscles and bones used in moving the arms or forelimbs, in vertebrates. In birds, the pectoralis major is the very large muscle used to produce a powerful downbeat of the wing during flight

pelvis
In vertebrates, the lower area of the abdomen featuring the bones and muscles used to move the legs or hindlimbs. The pelvic girdle is a set of bones that allows movement of the legs in relation to the rest of the body and provides sites for the attachment of relevant muscles. The pelvic girdle is formed by the sacrum, the coccyx, and the hip bones...

Pennsylvania
State in northeastern USA bordered to the north by New York, with a coastal strip on Lake Erie, to the west by Ohio and the West Virginia panhandle, to the south, on the Mason–Dixon Line, by West Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware, and to the east by New Jersey, across the Delaware River; area...

penumbra
Region of partial shade between the totally dark part (umbra) of a shadow and the fully illuminated region outside. It occurs when a source of light is only partially obscured by a shadow-casting object. The darkness of a penumbra varies gradually from total darkness at one edge to full brightness at the other. In astronomy, a penumbra is a reg...

pertussis
Medical name for whooping cough, an infectious disease mainly seen in children

Peugeot
French car and light commercial vehicle manufacturer, part of PSA Peugeot Citroën, founded in 1885 when Armand Peugeot (1849–1915) began making bicycles; the company bought the rival firm Citroën in 1974 and the European operations of the American Chrysler Company in 1978. In 2006 it sold 3.36 million vehicles worldwide, equivale...

Persian language
Language belonging to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family; see Farsi

periglacial environment
Click images to enlargeBordering a glacial area but not actually covered by ice all year round, or having similar climatic and environmental characteristics, such as in mountainous areas. Periglacial areas today include parts of Siberia, Greenland, and North America. The rock and soil in these areas is frozen to a depth o...

pepsin
Enzyme that breaks down proteins during digestion. It is produced by the walls of the stomach. It requires a strongly acidic environment such as that present in the stomach. It digests large protein molecules into smaller protein molecules (smaller polypeptides) and is therefore a protease – an enzyme that breaks down a protein

pentagon
Five-sided plane figure. A regular pentagon has all five sides of equal length and all five angles of equal size, 108°. It has golden section proportions between its sides and diagonals. The five-pointed star formed by drawing all the diagonals of a regular pentagon is called a pentagram. This star has further golden sections

percentile
In a cumulative frequency distribution, one of the 99 values of a variable that divide its distribution into 100 parts of equal frequency. In practice, only certain of the percentiles are used. They are the median (or 50th percentile), the lower and the upper quartiles (respectively, the 25th and 75th percentiles), the 10th percentile that cuts off...

perimeter
Line drawn around the edge of an area or shape. For example, the perimeter of a rectangle is the sum of the lengths of its four sides; the perimeter of a circle is known as its circumference

perpendicular
At a right angle; also, a line at right angles to another line or to a plane. Everyday examples include lamp posts, which are perpendicular to the road, and walls, which are perpendicular to the ground. For a pair of skew lines (lines in three dimensions that do not meet), there is just one commo...

perspective
Realistic representation of a three-dimensional object in two dimensions. One-point linear perspective is an effective way to give a picture depth and a sense of distance and space. It is based on three key principles: that the horizon line is always at eye-level; that the vanishing point is the point to which all lines parallel...

Pella
Capital of the ancient kingdom of Macedonia. It was the birthplace of Philip II of Macedon and Alexander the Great. Excavations began in 1957 and many elaborate mosaics have been revealed at the site, 40 km/25 mi northwest of Thessaloniki. It declined after the defeat of Macedonia by Rome 168 BC, and later became a Roman colony

personality cult
Practice by which a leader is elevated to a pre-eminent status through a propaganda campaign. In the USSR, the cult of personality was developed by Joseph Stalin in the 1930s. Later, both Mao Zedong in China and Kim Il Sung in North Korea used similar techniques to reinforce their leadership and ...

pencil
Drawing instrument made of graphite, encased in wood or other holder. By mixing graphite with clay, the French chemist Nicolas Conté (1755–1805) invented the modern pencil of predetermined hardness in 1750 (patented 1795). Capable of a rich range of texture and tone, the graphite (or `lead`) pencil replaced the limited metalpoin...

pedal point
In organ and piano music, a bass note that is sustained or continually repeated beneath changing harmonies. It is also a long-held bass note in orchestral music, as in the symphonies of Jean Sibelius

pentatonic scale
In music, a scale consisting of five notes. The most common pentatonic scale is made up of the notes that are equivalent to the black notes of the piano. Found as early as 2000 BC, the pentatonic scale is common in folk music from many countries. Some examples include the Scottish tune `Auld Lang Syne` and the African American tune `...

peace
A concept with two distinct meanings. On the one hand it can be defined negatively as the absence of war and hostility; on the other hand in a religious context it suggests the idea of harmony and wholeness achieved through a proper relationship with God. Attempts to achieve the cessation of war have taken varying and sometimes paradoxical form...

personal digital assistant
Handheld computer designed to store names, addresses, and diary information, and to send and receive faxes and e-mail. The two main types of PDA are those based on the Palm operating system, and those using the Windows Pocket PC operating system. Competition for the PDA came from the smartphone and also from ultra-mobile PC's with their...

Pergau Dam
Hydroelectric dam on the Pergau River in Malaysia, near the Thai border. Building work began in 1991 with money from the UK foreign aid budget. Concurrently, the Malaysian government bought around £1 billion worth of arms from the UK. The suggested linkage of arms deals to aid became the subject of a UK government enquiry from March 1994. In N...

perovskite
Yellow, brown, or greyish-black orthorhombic mineral, CaTiO3, which sometimes contains cerium. Other minerals that have a similar structure are said to have the perovskite structure. The term also refers to MgSiO3 with the perovskite structure, the principal mineral that makes up the Earth's low...

peripheral device
In computing, any item connected to a computer's central processing unit (CPU). Typical peripherals include keyboard, mouse, monitor, and printer. Users who enjoy playing games might add a joystick or a trackball; others might connect a modem, scanner, or integrated services digital network (...

penal code
Series of anti-Catholic laws introduced by the Dublin Parliament 1695–1727 in defiance of the Treaty of Limerick. Catholics were disenfranchised (no longer allowed to vote), banned from becoming members of Parliament or holding office, prevented from buying land from Protestants, and excluded from entry to higher education and the professi...

Perth and Kinross
Unitary authority in central Scotland, created in 1996 from the district bearing the same name in Tayside region. Area 5,388 sq km/2,080 sq mi Towns Blairgowrie, Crieff, Kinross, Perth (administrative headquarters), Pitlochry, Aberfeldy Physical the geological fault that gives the distinctive cha...

Pegu
Former name of Bago River and division in Myanmar, and an alternative name for Bago, a city in southern Myanmar

petit Brabançon
Smooth-haired form of the griffon Bruxelloise

Peterborough
(UK authority) Unitary authority in eastern England, created in 1998 from part of Cambridgeshire. Area 334 sq km/129 sq mi Towns and cities Peterborough (administrative headquarters), Wittering, Old Fletton, Thorney, Glinton, Northborough, Peakirk Features River Nene; western margins o...

person
In grammar, term used to describe pronouns and verbs. English has three persons: the first person – the speaker, speakers, writer, or writers, shown by the pronouns I, me (singular) and we, us (plural); the second person – the person or people being spoken...

Permanent Indian Frontier
Historic US border established by the US government, designating all lands west of the Mississippi River, as a Permanent Indian Domain `forever`, following the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The act attempted to relocate all American Indian peoples living in the eastern USA to Indian Territory in the Great Plains. This region had been named ...

persuasion
Means of communication that involves putting forward opinions and beliefs with the intention of influencing the opinions and beliefs of others. Skilful persuaders present a structured argument in a style that powerfully emphasizes their point of view and, consequently, often make use of devices of rhetoric (or figures of speech) such as exaggeratio...

perfect tense
In grammar, the form a verb takes to express action made perfect, that is, completed, in the past, present, or future. The present perfect of to climb is `I have climbed`; the past perfect is `I had climbed`; the future perfect is `I shall have climbed`; the future perfect in the past (se...

Peski Karakumy
Alternative name for Kara-Kum, a sandy desert in Turkmenistan

Peloponnisos
Greek name for the Peloponnese, the peninsula forming the southern part of Greece

Persian Gulf
Alternative name for the Gulf, a large inlet of the Arabian Sea

penitence
In the Christian church, true sorrow for sin and the asking for God's forgiveness. In the Lord's Prayer, Jesus taught his followers to ask God to `forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us`. An important part of many church services is the opportunity for the confession of sins and absolution (forgiven...

Pentecost
(Christianity) Christian festival that celebrates the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is celebrated seven weeks after Easter, and is regarded as the birthday of the Christian church. Traditionally a time of baptism, the name Whit Sunday, or White Sunday, derives from the custom of wearing white wh...

Pentecost
(Judaism) Another name for the Jewish festival of Shavuot

percentage composition
In chemistry, the percentage by mass of each element in a compound. According to the law of constant composition, the proportions of the amounts of the elements in a pure compound are always the same and are independent of the method by which the compound was produced. The percentage composition of a compound is found by writing the formula, workin...

percolation
Gradual movement or transfer of water thorough porous substances (such as porous rocks or soil)

Pelosi, Nancy Patricia D'Alessandro
US Democrat politician, speaker of the House of Representatives from 2007 and minority leader 2002–07. She is the first woman to lead a major party in the US Congress and, as first female speaker of the House, is the highest-ranking woman in the history of the US government. She represented California's Eighth District (which includes ...

Pfalz
German name of the historic division of Germany, the Palatinate

phlox
Any of a group of plants native to North America and Siberia. Phloxes are small with alternate leaves and clusters of showy white, pink, red, or purple flowers. (Genus Phlox, family Polemoniaceae.)

phagocyte
Type of white blood cell, or leucocyte, that can engulf a bacterium or other invading micro-organism. Phagocytes are found in blood, lymph, and other body tissues, where they also ingest foreign matter and dead tissue. A macrophage differs in size and lifespan

physiotherapy
Treatment of injury and disease by physical means such as exercise, heat, manipulation, massage, and electrical stimulation

Phrygia
Click images to enlargeFormer kingdom of western Asia covering the Anatolian plateau. It was inhabited in ancient times by an Indo-European people and achieved great prosperity in the 8th century BC under a line of kings bearing in turn the names Gordius and Midas, but then fell under Lydian rule. From Phrygia the cul...

phonetics
The identification, description, and classification of sounds used in articulate speech. These sounds are codified in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), a highly modified version of the Roman alphabet. The IPA is based on ordinary Roman letters, along with modified forms, letters from other alphabets, and some invented letters. There are al...

phoenix
In Egyptian and Oriental mythology, a sacred bird born from the sun. The Egyptians believed it was also connected with the soul and the obelisk. In China the phoenix signified good and its appearance prosperity; its departure boded calamity. According to the Greek historian Herodotus, the creature visited the temple of the sun at Heliopolis eve...

Phoenicia
Ancient Greek name for northern Canaan on the east coast of the Mediterranean. The Phoenician civilization flourished from about 1200 until the capture of Tyre by Alexander the Great in 332 BC. Seafaring traders and artisans, they are said to have circumnavigated Africa and established colonies in Cyprus, North Africa (for example, Carthage), Malta...

Phnom Penh
Capital of Cambodia, lying in the south of the country, at the confluence of the Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers, 210 km/130 mi northwest of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; population (1998) 570,200, (2007 calc) 1,781,100. Industries include textiles, food processing, footwear, paper, tyres, and glassware. History Established as a settlement in the ...

phlebitis
Inflammation of the wall of a vein. It is sometimes associated with varicose veins or with a blockage by a blood clot (thrombosis), in which case it is more accurately described as thrombophlebitis. Phlebitis may occur as a result of the hormonal changes associated with pregnancy, or due to long-term use of contraceptive pills, or following pro...

philosophy
Systematic analysis and critical examination of fundamental problems such as the nature of reality, mind, perception, self, free will, causation, time and space, and moral judgements. Traditionally, philosophy has three branches: metaphysics (the nature of being), epistemology (theory of knowledge), and logic (study of valid inference). Modern ...

Philistine
Member of a seafaring people of non-Semitic origin who founded city-states on the Palestinian coastal plain in the 12th century BC, adopting a Semitic language and religion

philology
In historical linguistics, the study of the development of languages. It is also an obsolete term for the study of literature. In this sense the scholars of Alexandria, who edited the Greek epics of Homer, were philologists. The Renaissance gave great impetus to this kind of study. Dutch scholars took the lead in the 17th century while Richard Bent...

Philip, St
In the New Testament, one of the 12 apostles. He was an inhabitant of Bethsaida (northern Israel), and is said to have worked as a missionary in Anatolia. Feast day 3 May

Philby, Kim
(Harold Adrian Russell) British intelligence officer from 1940 and Soviet agent from 1933. He was liaison officer in Washington 1949–51, when he was confirmed to be a double agent and asked to resign. Named in 1963 as having warned Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean (also double agents) that ...

Philadelphia
River port and chief city in Pennsylvania, USA, on the Delaware River at the junction with the Schuykill River; population (2000 est) 1,517,600. It is the world's largest freshwater port, the fifth largest city in the USA, and a financial, business, and research centre. Industries include oil...

Phidias
Greek sculptor. Active in Athens, he supervised the sculptural programme for the Parthenon (most of it is preserved in the British Museum, London, and known as the Elgin marbles). He also executed the colossal statue of Zeus at Olympia, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. No surviving sculptures can be credited to him with certainty. He was a fr...

pharmacology
Study of the properties of drugs and their effects on the human body

pharynx
Muscular cavity behind the nose and mouth, extending downwards from the base of the skull. Its walls are made of muscle strengthened with a fibrous layer and lined with mucous membrane. The internal nostrils lead backwards into the pharynx, which continues downwards into the oesophagus and (through the epiglottis) into the windpipe. On each side, a...

Pharisee
Member of a conservative Jewish sect that arose in Roman-occupied Palestine in the 2nd century BC in protest against all movements favouring compromise with Hellenistic culture. The Pharisees were devout adherents of the law, both as found in the Torah and in the oral tradition known as the Mishnah. They were opposed by the Sadducees on several...

Pharaoh
Hebrew form of the Egyptian royal title Per-'o. This term, meaning `great house`, was originally applied to the royal household, and after about 950 BC to the king

Phaethon
In Greek mythology, the son of Helios, god of the Sun, and Clymene. He was allowed to drive his father's chariot for one day, but lost control of the horses and almost set the Earth on fire, whereupon he was killed by Zeus with a thunderbolt and hurled into the River Eridanos

photosphere
Visible surface of the Sun, which emits light and heat. About 300 km/200 mi deep, it consists of incandescent gas at a temperature of 5,800 K (5,530°C/9,980°F). Rising cells of hot gas produce a mottling of the photosphere known as granulation, each granule being about 1,000 km/...

phosphorus
Highly reactive, non-metallic element, atomic number 15, relative atomic mass 30.9738. It occurs in nature as phosphates (commonly in the form of the mineral apatite), and is essential to all life, because phosphate groups are an essential part of DNA. Compounds of phosphorus are used in fertilizers, various organic chemicals, for matches and f...

phosphate
Salt or ester of phosphoric acid. Incomplete neutralization of phosphoric acid gives rise to acid phosphates (see acid salt). Phosphates are used as fertilizers, and are required for the development of healthy root systems. They are involved in many biochemical processes, often as part of complex molecules, such as ATP

pH
Click images to enlargeScale from 0 to 14 for measuring acidity or alkalinity. A pH of 7 indicates neutrality, below 7 is acid, while above 7 is alkaline. Strong acids, such as those used in car batteries, have a pH of about 2; strong alkalis such as sodium hydroxide have a pH of about 13. Acidic fruits such as citrus...

phenol
Member of a group of aromatic chemical compounds with weakly acidic properties, which are characterized by a hydroxyl (OH) group attached directly to an aromatic ring. The simplest of the phenols, derived from benzene, is also known as phenol and has the formula C6H5...

phylloxera
Plant-eating insect of the family Phylloxeridae, closely related to the aphids. The grape, or vine phylloxera Phylloxera vitifolia, a native of North America, is a notorious pest of grapevines, forming galls on roots and leaves, which damage the plant. European vines are markedly susceptible and many French vineyards suffered...

pheasant
Any of various large, colourful Asiatic fowls of the family Phasianidae, order Galliformes, which also includes grouse, quail, and turkey. The typical pheasants are in the genus Phasianus, which has two species: the Japanese pheasant, P. versicolor, found in Japan, and the Eurasian ring-necked or common...

physiology
Branch of biology that deals with the functioning of living organisms, as opposed to anatomy, which studies their structures