Page:The Century Dictionary Volume 12.djvu/310

 1050 post prapenna, prepenna (pre-pen'a), n. ; pi. pra- peniiie, prepeniise (-e). [NL., < L.prse, before, + penna, feather.] A feather of the nestling plumage of birds which resembles the suc- ceeding feather, or teleoptile, and is not of the nature of down. The neossoptilea of the Palseognathte consist of pre- penna ouly, but these present many features of great in- terest. Trans. Zool. Soe. London, Dec, 1900, p. 162. praeplumulae, preplumulae (prS-plo'mii-le), ji. pi. [XL., < L. pne, before, + pliimula (which see).] The downy covering of young birds when it does not consist of prepennas, that is, is not connected with the definite feathers which appear later. Trans. LinneanSoc, Zool., practicTm (prak'ti^kum), n ; Vl- practjca(-^^ pra'sc'Sar.- prescutellar (pre-skii'te-lar), [NU, < Gr. ^paKTi^d^, of ""^^P^^^^^Sg^;" a. [prs'Scutell{um) + -ar3.- Inentom., ol or pertaining to the prroscutellum. Proc. Zool. Sac. London, 1898, p. 318. Frisian (pre'si-an), a. Of or pertaining to the ancient Prsesus in Crete, especially to antiq- uities discovered by excavations in its site. The stone jambs characteristic of Pracirfan.housea are here more massive than usual. IL C. Botianquet, in An. Brit School at Athens. VIII. [262. PP. s. pp. S. An abbreviation of the Latin post^criptum, a second postscript. P. Q. An abbreviation (a) of Previous Ques- tion ; (6) of Province of Quebec. Pr. 2. In c/trai., the symbol for pr««eo(fyOTJMm. P. K. An abbre'iation (n) of the Latiu Popii- lus Bomanus, the Roman People; (6) of I'orto Rico; (c) of the Latin punctum remotum, farthest point (namely, of accommodation to which the eve can adjust itself). P. K. A. An abbreviiition of President of the Royal Academy. practice (prak'ti-ko), )i. [8p., a practitioner, etc. See practice.'^ In the Philippines and Cuba, a guide, action. See praetic.' An example for stu dent practice, as in laboratory or field work. Hunt, The Cereals in America. praeabdomen, preabdomen (pre-ab-do'men), n. [XL., < L. prx, before, + ahdoinen.' The anterior broad portion of the abdomen of scorpions. Parker and Hasivell, Zoology, 1. 605. prabrachium, prebrachium (pre-bra'ki-um), H. ; pi. priebracliia, prebrachia (-ii). [NL. pr«- brachium, < L. prse, before, + brachium, arm.] praetergiun, pretergum (pre-ter'gum), n.; pi. . The anterior process of the corpus quadri- prscterrja, preteri/a (-gii). [NL.. < L. prie, be- geminum. — 2. In zool., that part of the wing- fore, + tergum (which see).] The anterior of membraneof a bat lying in advance of the arm; the three parts into which the tergal aspect the antebrachial membrane or propatagium. of a segment of a coleopterous larva is nor- praecentralis, precentralls (pre-sen-tra'lis), mally divided. n. [NL., < L. prx, before, + centralis, een- pragmatic, a. 3. A term used (by Kant) to tral.] A fissure cephalad or anterior to, and denote rules of action (otherwise denominated more or less parallel with, the central fissure (fissure of Rolando) of the brain — Prsecen- tralls superior. Same as mpercentral *jissure. J'roc. Zool. Soc. London. 1903, p. 16. praecentnim, precentrum (pre-sen'trum), n. ; pi. priecentra, precentra (-tra). [NL., < L. prx, before, -I- centrum.'] One of the verte- bral disks which carry neural and hemal arches, when found alternating with those that are not thus furnished: contrasted with *post- centrum. The condition is found in some fishes. Gadijic. pracordium, precordium (pre-k6r'di-um), n. ; pi. prxcordia, precordia (-a). Same as pre- cordial region (which see, under precordial). praecomual, precornual (pre-k6r'nu-al), a. [NL. priecornti + -o(l.] Relating to. the pi-Kcornu. Buck, Med. Handbook, it. 171. Pradentata (pre-den«ta'ta), n.^pl. [NL., < L. prx, before, in front, +" dentatus, toothed.] A suborder of herbivorous dinosaurs includ- ing quadrupedal and bipedal forms. It is dis- tinguished by the presence of a toothless predentary hone in front of the mandible ; by the premaxillai being either wholly or partly edentulous ; and by the slender post- pubes, which are directed downward and backward par- allel to the ischium. Its members may be armored or unarmored. They occur in formations from the Upper Jura to the Upper Cretaceous in North America and Europe. Also Predentata. prse-ilium, pre-ilium (pre-il'i-um), n. ; pi. prse- ilia, pre-ilia (-ii). [NL.,< L. jnra?, before, -t- ilium:] In orniih., that part of the ilium which PJf^^,^"^™;, lies in front of the acetabulum. pramedia, «. See i'premedia. pranarial, a. 2. Preceding or situated an- terior to the nares or nostrils : applicable either to anatomical structure, as, prienarial border; or to direction, &9, prwnarial elonga- tion of snout. Trans. Zool. Soc. London, Dec, , p. 182 Prjenarlal septum, a vertical bony plate situated in front of the narial openings. H. n. That portion of the facial region of a vertebrate head which lies anterior to the opening of the nares or nostrils. Pranestine (pre-nes'tin), a. and n. [NL. Prsencstimis, adj.', Prsenestini, n. pi., < Prseneste, Gr. IlpaiveoToq and TlpaivecTs, an ancient city of Latium.] I. a. Of or pertaining to Prseneste. The engraved metal caskets of the kind commonly known as Prfenestine cista;, because they have been found for the most part at Pra!nest4, the modern Pales- trina. Woitmann and Woermann, History of Painting, I. 88. II. «. An inhabitant of Preeneste (now Palestrina). The Romans. . . . were inclined to sneer" at the pro- nunciation and idiom of the Prifnestineg. Eneyc. Brit, XXXIII. 897. prapatagluin,prepatagium(pre-pat-a-ji'um), «. ; pi. priepatagia, prepatagia (-a). [NL., < L. prx, before, + patagium.] Tfie triangular membrane on the front of a bird's wing, lying between the humerus and forearm. Parker and Saswell, Zoology, II. 352. counsels of prudeuce ') which have to do with the attainment of happiness. As used by him, it is antithetic to the term 'practical,' which refers to principles of action (otherwise called 'categorical imperatives') which have to do with the attainment of virtue. We might . . . call the first kind of imperatives tech- nical (belonging to art), the second pragmatic (to welfare), the third moral (belonging to free conduct generally, that is, to morals). Kant (trans.), Fundamental Piinciples of the Meta- (physic of Ethics, p. 40. . Having to do wi(h pragmatism as a phil- osophy: as, the pragmatic movement; prag- matic thought. See*pragmatism, 3. pragmaticism (prag-mat'i-sizm), n. Iprag- matic + -ism.] A special and limited form of pragmatism, in which the pragmatism is re- stricted to the determining of the meaning of concepts (particularly of philosophic concepts) by consideration of the experimental differ- ences in the conduct of life which would con- ceivably result from the affirmation or denial of the meaning in question. He [the writer] framed the theory that a conception, that is, the rational purport of a word or other expression, lies exclusively in its conceivable bearing upon the con- duct of life. . . . To serve the precise purpose of express- ing the original definition, he begs to announce the loirth of the word " pragmaticimi." C. S. Peirce, in The Monist, April, 1905, p. 166.

pragmatism,  n.  3. In '' philos. '', a method of thought, a general movement or tendency of thought, and a specific school, in which stress is placed upon practical consequences and practical values as standards for explicating philosophic conceptions and as tests for determining their value and, especially, their truth. The word is used in a variety of senses, of greater or less breadth and definiteness. The following meanings of the term are arranged in the order of descending generality: (a) An attitude of mind, namely that of "looking away from first things, principles, 'categories,' supposed necessities, and of looking toward last things, fruits, consequences, facts." W. James, Pragmatism, a New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking, p. 55. (b) A theory concerning the proper method of determining the meaning of conceptions. "Consider what effects, that might conceivably have practical bearings, we conceive the object of our conception to have. Then, our conception of these effects is the whole of our conception of the object." C. S. Peirce, in Baldwin's Dict. of Philos. and Psychol. , II. This theory was first propounded by Mr. Peirce in an article upon "How to Make our Ideas Clear" in the "Popular Science Monthly" in 1878. The term 'pragmatism' does not, however, appear there. In an article in the "Monist" for 1905, Mr. Peirce says that he "has used it continually in philosophic conversation, since, perhaps, the mid-seventies." The term was publicly introduced in print by Professor William James in 1898 in an address upon "Philosophic Conceptions and Practical Realities," in which the authorship of the term and of the method is credited to Mr. Peirce. The latter has recently used the term 'pragmaticism' to express this meaning. (c) The theory that the processes and the materials of knowledge are determined by practical or purposive considerations—that there is no such thing as knowledge determined by exclusively theoretical, speculative, or abstract intellectual considerations. This definition expresses the net or mean sense of the term in its various uses. "Now quite the most striking feature of the new theory was its recognition of an inseparable connection between rational cognition and rational purpose; and that consideration it was which determined the preference for the name 'pragmatism.'"  C. S. Peirce, in The Monist, 1905. F. C. S. Schiller has defined pragmatism as "the thorough recognition that the purposive character of mental life generally must influence and pervade also our most remotely cognitive activities." Humanism, Philosophic Essays, p. 8. Pragmatism—by which I mean the doctrine that reality possesses practical character and that this character is most efficaciously expressed in the function of intelligence. J. Dewey, in Essays Philosophical and Psychological, p. 59. (d) A theory of the nature of truth, namely, that the correspondence between fact and idea which constitutes truth consists in the power of the idea in question to work satisfactorily, or to produce the results intended by it. Such then would be the scope of pragmatism—first, a method, and second, a genetic theory of what is meant by truth. W. James, Pragmatism, p. 65. (e) A metaphysical theory regarding the nature of reality, namely that it is still in process of making, and that human ideas and efforts play a fundamental rôle in its making: the equivalent of humanism as a metaphysical term. The essential contrast is that for rationalism reality is ready-made and complete from all eternity, while for pragmatism it is still in the making, and awaits part of its complexion from the future. W. James, Pragmatism, p. 257. Pragmatism. . . is a conscious application to epistemology (or logic) of a teleological psychology, which implies, ultimately, a voluntaristic metaphysic  F. C. S. Schiller, Studies in Humanism, p. 12.

pragmatist, n. 2. One who adheres to or professes the philosophy of pragmatism ; more loosely, an opponent of rationalism and ab- solutism in philosophy; a supporter of the experimental method of reasoning in philoso- phy; a supporter of empincism, but, unlike other empiricists, one who judges by conse- quences rather than by antecedents. See prairie, n. 2. Any small open space in a for- est. See the extract. [Local, California.] The word "prairie," as used in Mendocino and Hum- boldt counties, may be broadly defined as any small open space among the timber, whether covered with grass or with dwarf brush. Along the coast of Mendocino County the name is applied to the area^ of light, sandy "white-aah" soil covered with dwarf scrub and aur- rounded by timber. In the interior the "prairies" are open pastures surrounded by either timber or brush. U. S. Dept. Agr., Bureau of Plant Industry, Bulletin 12, [1902, p. 27. Bald prairie, a local type of prairie. See the extract [Alabama.] The eminencea of the lower awella of the plain with the atrata of the limestone near the surface and destitute of arboreal growth are called bald prairies. C. Mohr, Plant Life of Alabama, p. 104. Prairie region. .Same as itcane-brnke regirm. — Prairie twister. Same as itlimster. 1 (h).— Salt prairies, nearly level tracts, in arid countries, covered with saline deposits.— Soda-prairie,; water-prairie. See *soda- prairie, -it water-prairie. prairie-breaker (pra'ri-bra'ker), n. A plow for cutting a wide, shallow furrow, and com- pletely inverting the furrow slice. N. E. D. prairie-iiock, «. 2. The American feverfew, Parthenium intvgri folium. prairie-fowl (pra 'ri-foul), n. The prairie-hen. prairie-grouse (pra'ri-grous), n. 'The prairie- hen. prairie-hare (pra ' ri - har), n. A common light gray hare, Lepus catnpestris, of the west- ern United States. Also known as the varying hare because in the northern portion of its range it turns white in winter.
 * pragmatism, 3.