ossivorous (en)

bone-eating

ostinato (en)

(noun) a musical figure repeated persistently at the same pitch throughout a composition (from Italian)

Oulipian (en)

referring to Oulipo, a loose gathering of (mainly) French-speaking writers and mathematicians who seek to create works using constrained writing techniques

ousia (en)

(from Greek) analogous to the English concepts of being and ontic used in contemporary philosophy; one of Heidegger's pet concepts (meaning Being)

ouvrierism (en)

(communism) The glorification of manual laborers, often in opposition to the leadership of labor or socialist movements

Oxonian (en)

(noun) a student or graduate of Oxford University

pabulum (en)

bland or insipid intellectual fare, entertainment, etc.; pap

palinode (en)

(noun) an ode or song recanting or retracting something in an earlier poem / (noun) a formal retraction

palpebral (en)

(adjective) of, relating to, or located on or near the eyelids

pampas (en)

(noun) an extensive generally grass-covered plain of temperate South America east of the Andes; prairie / (noun) a South American grass (Cortaderia selloana) often grown for ornament that has showy white panicles borne on tall stems

pandanus (en)

(noun) screw pine - a kind of tropical tree

pandects (en)

(noun) a complete code of the laws of a country or system of law / (noun) a treatise covering an entire subject

Panglossian (en)

(adjective) marked by the view that all is for the best in this best of possible worlds; excessively optimistic

pansophism (en)

universal wisdom or knowledge; omniscience; also known as "pansophy"

pappus (en)

(noun) a downy, bristly, or other tuftlike appendage of the achene of certain plants (e.g., dandelions)

paralalia (en)

a speech disorder marked by distortions of sounds or substitution of letters

parasagittal (en)

parallel to the sagittal plane (which divides the body into left and right halves)

paratext (en)

(noun) a concept in literary interpretation; the other material supplied by the author(s), editors, printers, and publishers, including front matter, back matter, footnotes, etc (the peritext) as well as the epitext (interviews, correspondence, diaries, etc); as defined by literary theorist Gérard Genette

pari passu (en)

(adverb or adjective) at an equal rate or pace

parlor-pink (en)

related to the slang term "Pinko", which was coined in 1925 in the United States to describe a person regarded as being sympathetic to communism; often used, derogatorily, to describe anyone perceived to have leftist or socialist sympathies

Parnassus (en)

(geographical name) mountain 8061 feet (2457 m) cen Greece N of Gulf of Corinth

parousia (grk)

(noun, ancient Greek) presence, arrival, or official visit

parricidal (en)

relating to the act of killing one's parent

pars pro toto (la)

part (taken) for the whole

passel (en)

(informal) a large group of people or things of indeterminate number; a pack