pith
/pɪθ/ noun, verb, adjective
Forms piths pithing pithed pi-th
- noun The soft, spongy substance inside plant parts; specifically, the parenchyma in the centre of the roots and stems of many plants and trees.
- noun The albedo (“whitish inner portion of the rind”) of a citrus fruit.
- noun The soft tissue inside a human or animal body or one of their organs; specifically, the spongy interior substance of a horn or the shaft of a feather.
- noun Chiefly of animals: the soft tissue inside a spinal cord; the spinal marrow; also, the spinal cord itself.
- noun (obsolete) Synonym of diploe (“the thin layer of soft, spongy, or cancellate tissue between the bone plates which constitute the skull”).
- noun (obsolete, rare) The soft tissue of the brain.
- noun (Ireland, Southern England, West Country) The soft inner portion of a loaf of bread.
- noun The central or innermost part of something; the core, the heart.
- verb To render insensate or kill (an animal, especially cattle or a laboratory animal) by cutting, piercing, or otherwise destroying the spinal cord.
- verb To extract the pith from (something or (figurative) someone).
- adjective (mathematics) The ordinal form of the number pi (π; approximately 3.14159…). “The pith root of pi is approximately 1.439…”
- noun (mathematics) One divided by pi, that is, 1/π (approximately 0.31831…).
Synonyms
marrow medulla diploe kernel crux gist heart heart and soul inwardness meat nitty-gritty nub quintessence soul spirit substance bowels sum brass tacks core center centre essence
Etymology
The noun is derived from Middle English pith, pithe (“soft interior; pith, pulp”) [and other forms], from Old English piþa [and other forms], from Proto-Germanic *piþô, from earlier *piþō (oblique *pittan); further etymology unknown. Doublet of pit (“seed or stone inside a fruit”).
The verb Middle English pethen (“to give courage or strength”), derived from pith (noun), did not survive into modern English.
* Dutch peen (“carrot”)
* Middle Low German peddek, peddik, piddek (“bone marrow; medulla; spinal cord; inner part of a horn or quill; (figurative) core, essence”) (the last spelling rare) (Low German Peddik (“core; pulp”))
* West Frisian piid (“pulp, kernel”)
From pi (“constant representing the ratio of the circumference of a Euclidean circle to its diameter”) + -th (suffix forming ordinal numerals).
Webster’s 1913
- noun The soft spongy substance in the center of the stems of many plants and trees, especially those of the dicotyledonous or exogenous classes. It consists of cellular tissue.
- noun Hence: The which contains the strength of life; the vital or essential part; concentrated force; vigor; strength; importance; as, the speech lacked pith.
- verb To destroy the central nervous system of (an animal, as a frog), as by passing a stout wire or needle up and down the vertebral canal.
Etymology [AS. pi; akin to D. pit pith, kernel, LG. peddik. Cf. Pit a kernel.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “pith”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details