Pentecost (from Greek pentecoste, “fiftieth day”) Christian festival commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit on the disciples of Jesus, occurring on the Jewish Pentecost, after Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension. The disciples began to speak in the many languages of the people assembled there, a sign that the disciples should spread the Chris¬ tian message throughout the world. Jewish Pentecost was a thanksgiving feast for the first fruits of the wheat harvest and was associated with remembrance of God’s gift of the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai. Chris¬ tian Pentecost is celebrated on the Sunday concluding the 50-day period following Easter. It is also the name of the Jewish celebration of Shavuot (“Festival of Weeks”).
Pentecostalism Protestant religious movement that originated in the U.S. in the 19th-20th century. It is characterized by a belief that all Chris¬ tians should seek a postconversion religious experience called baptism with the Holy Spirit. The experience corresponds to the descent of the Holy Spirit on the twelve Apostles (Pentecost) and is evidenced by speaking in tongues, prophesying, and healing. Pentecostalism grew out of the 19th- century Holiness movement and shares its emphasis on biblical literalism, conversion, and moral rigor. The charismatic movement in Roman Catho¬ lic and mainstream Protestant denominations represents the same spirit. Today there are many Pentecostalist denominations in the U.S. and around the world, including the Assemblies of God. Penetcostalism has been espe¬ cially successful in the Caribbean, Latin America, and Africa.
penthouse Enclosed area on top of a building. A penthouse can be an apartment on the roof or top floor of a building or a structure on the roof housing the top of an elevator shaft, air-conditioning equipment, or stairs leading to the roof. A penthouse is usually set back from the vertical face of a building, but as a real-estate term, penthouse may refer to any top floor, regardless of setbacks. Though the word now often suggests a luxu¬ rious apartment with a panoramic view, historically a penthouse was a lean-to, shed, or other small structure attached to a comparatively large building.
Pentium Family of microprocessors developed by Intel Corp. Introduced in 1993 as the successor to Intel’s 80486 microprocessor, the Pentium
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
1470 I Penutian languages ► peptic ulcer
contained two processors on a single chip and about 3.3 million transis¬ tors. Using a CISC (complex instruction set computer) architecture, its main features were a 32-bit address bus, a 64-bit data bus, built-in floating¬ point and memory-management units, and two 8KB caches. It was avail¬ able with processor speeds ranging from 60 megahertz (MHz) to 200 MHz. The Pentium quickly became the processor of choice for personal computers. It was superseded by ever faster and more powerful proces¬ sors, the Pentium Pro (1995), the Pentium II (1997), the Pentium III (1999), and the Pentium 4 (2000).
Penutian languages \p9-'nu-te-9n\ Hypothetical superfamily of North American Indian languages that unites a number of languages and language families mainly of the far western U.S. and Canada. The Penu¬ tian hypothesis was proposed by Roland B. Dixon and Alfred L. Kroeber in 1913 and refined by Edward Sapir in 1921. Like the Hokan hypothesis (see Hokan languages), it attempted to reduce the number of unrelated language families in one of the world’s most linguistically diverse areas. At its core was a group of languages spoken along California’s central coast and in the Central Valley, including Ohlone (Costanoan), Mi wok, Wintuan, Maidu, and Yokuts. Sapir added Oregon Penutian (languages once spoken in eastern Oregon), Chinookan (spoken along the lower Columbia River), Plateau Penutian (languages of Plateau Indian peoples), Tsimshian (spoken in western British Columbia), and Mexican Penutian (spoken in southern Mexico). Aside from the Mexican group, all the lan¬ guages are today either extinct or spoken almost exclusively by older adults. Though the hypothesis remains unproven, at least some languages of the group are probably related to each other.
Penzias \'pent-se-9s\, Arno (Allan) (b. April 26, 1933, Munich, Ger.) German-bom U.S. astrophysicist. His family fled Nazi Germany, and he received his Ph.D. from Columbia University, after which he joined Bell Telephone Laboratories, where he worked with Robert W. Wilson moni¬ toring radio emissions from a ring of gas around the Milky Way Galaxy. The two detected an unexpected uniform background static that suggested a thermal energy throughout the universe at a temperature of about -454 °F (-269 °C), which most scientists now agree is residual cosmic back¬ ground radiation stemming from the big bang explosion billions of years ago, from which the universe was created. They shared a 1978 Nobel Prize with Pyotr Kapitsa (1894-1984) for their work. In 1981 Penzias became a vice president at Bell Laboratories, retiring in 1998.
peonage Ype-a-nijV Form of involuntary servitude, the origins of which date to the Spanish conquest of Mexico, when the conquerors forced the poor, especially Indians, to work for Spanish planters and mine operators. In the U.S., the word peon referred to workers compelled by contract to pay their creditors in labour. Though prohibited under U.S. federal law, peonage persisted in some southern states through state laws that made labour compulsory. Another form of peonage exists when prisoners sen¬ tenced to hard labour are farmed out to labour camps.
peony \'pe-o-ne\ Any of about 33 species of flowering plants in the genus Paeonia, sole genus of the family Paenoiaceae, found in Europe, Asia, and western North America and known for their large, showy blos¬ soms. Herbaceous peonies are perennials that grow to about 3 ft (1 m). Their annual stems bear large, glossy, much-divided leaves and produce large single and double flowers of white, pink, rose, and deep crimson. Tree peonies are shrubs about 4-6 ft (1.2-1.8 m) high with permanent rootstocks and woody stems that bear flowers varying in colour from white to lilac, violet, and red.
People's Liberation Army Unified organization of China’s land, sea, and air forces. With more than 2,000,000 troops, it is the largest mili¬ tary force of any country in the world. The People’s Liberation Army traces its roots to the 1927 Nanchang Uprising of the communists against the Nationalists. Initially called the Red Army, it grew under Zhu De from 5,000 troops in 1929 to 200,000 in 1933. Only a fraction of this force survived the Long March in retreat from the Nationalists. After rebuild¬ ing its strength, a large portion of it, the Eighth Route Army, fought with the Nationalists against the Japanese in northern China. After World War II the communist forces, renamed the People’s Liberation Army, defeated the Nationalists, making possible the formation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. See also Lin Biao; Mao Zedong.
Peoria City (pop., 2000: 112,936), central Illinois, U.S. The city is situ¬ ated where the Illinois River widens to form Peoria Lake. The first settle¬ ment on the site was a French fort established in 1680 by the French explorer La Salle. Later settlements were by the French, Indians, and other
colonists. It was incorporated as a city in 1845. It is a major port, trade, and shipping centre for a large agricultural area. It is highly industrial¬ ized, and its products include earth-moving equipment and chemicals.
Pepin III See Pippin III
Pepin, Donation of See Donation of Pippin
pepper or garden pepper Any of many plants in the genus Cap¬ sicum of the NIGHTSHADE family, nota¬ bly C. annuum, C. frutescens, and C. boccatum, native to Central and South America and cultivated exten¬ sively throughout tropical Asia and the equatorial New World for their edible, pungent fruits. Red, green, and yellow mild bell or sweet pep¬ pers, rich in vitamins A and C, are used in seasoning and as a vegetable food. The pungency of hot peppers, including tabasco, chili, and cayenne peppers, comes from the compound capsaicin in the internal partitions of the fruit. The spice back pepper comes from an unrelated plant.