PERNICIOUS: death-dealing

　　A pernicious practice is a harmful one that will work evil, but even though the word still implies a threat, it has weakened in power through the centuries. The Latin perniciosus gave it to us, and this splits into per-, “through and through,” and nex, necis, “death.”

　　PERSON: first was a mask

　　Actors in Roman and Greek dramas often had to take more than one part in a single performance,and for each chanracter that they portrayed they would wear a different mask.the name of such a mask in latin was

　　persona,and since,in a fashion,we are all actors,the word persona came to mean the part that anyone plays in the world.and finally it designated an individuality,or,as of today,a person.by a similar figure of speech,if we impersonate another,we put on his mask.

　　POSTMAN:reminder of romance

　　when the postman rings our doorbell on his daily rounds,he gives little hint of the romance of his beginnings.the first postman were royal couriers who rode post,and a post was one of a chain of stations that furnished a relay of fresh men and horses to carry the king`s messages to some distant point.later on these postriders carried the mails.the word post itself came up from the latin posita,"placed,"for the original posts were "placed"at intervals,along a communication route.

　　PRECARIOUS:obtained by prayer

　　when we are in a precarious positiomn,oursituation is uncertain and often dangerous.the whole thing started out with the idea of prayer,for precarious is based on the latin word prex,precis, "prayer."it looks as though the romans thought when you got anything by prayer or entreaty,it was a pretty uncertain piece of business,for their same word precarious meant "risky".in the begings of the English language precarious meant supplication,and in 1656 the English lexicographer Blount defined precarious as something "granted to one by prayer and entreaty,to use as long as it pleases the party and no longer."Now the word more nearly means "dependent on chance or hazard."

　　PRECOCIOUS: half-baked?

　　Latin prae-,"before,"and coquere,"to cook,"were combined to form praecoquere,"to cook beforehand"or"ripen beforehand."in the latter sense the word applied to fruits that ripened early.From this was derived the English word precocious ,originally applied to plants and trees with the meaning "flowwering or fruiting early or before the usual time ,""early or prematurely ripe or edveloped."We speak of a precocious child as one who is unusually forward and mature .He is "cooked ahead"or if he happpens to be a brat you don't like ,you might prefer to say he is "half-baked."

　　PRESTIGE:meant magic

　　When we say that a man has gained great prestige we intend it as a compliment ,but the French word prestige that we have borrowed is allied to prestidigitation and originally meant juggling tricks ,or illusion. So the prestige that has been won by some of our political leaders may sometimes have something to do with sleight of hand. As one 17th-century writer put it:"I am not deceived by the prestiges of the impostor."

　　PUNTY:born later

　　The word puny has meant many things down through the years, as:"inferior in rank," a puny officer;"more recent in time," a puny date;" a junior,"he left his money to the older children, none to the punies;"a novice or tyro,"I see you are but a puny in your studies.And now puny just means small and feeble.The word is directly trom the 12th-century French puisne,from puis, "later,"and ne,"born,"and its meaning "of small growth" or "weak" simply refers to the fact that babies and younger children "born later" have less strength than the older ones.if you bive the French pronunciation to puisne the sound is almost identical with puny.