pie English · revision 6912

+ {{infobox|confidence=uncertain|attested=1303}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /paɪ/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ Its origin is uncertain.^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline) It appears in Medieval Latin pie, meat or fish in pastry, about 1303, perhaps related to Medieval Latin pia, pastry.^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline) It is probably the same word as Middle English pie, magpie, [[bor|fro|pie]], from [[la|pīca|t=magpie]],^(Hoad 1986)^(SOED 2002)^(MWU 2024) perhaps because a pie's miscellaneous contents were compared with the odd objects a magpie collects.^(Hoad 1986)^(Cresswell 2021)^(Etymonline) The OED notes that the word is not known outside English except in Gaelic pighe, from English.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Food enclosed in pastry: 1303 in a Medieval Latin context, 1357–58 in English in Barnhart;^(Barnhart 1988) ''piehus'', bakery, is from 1199.^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ In the Middle Ages a pie had many ingredients and a pastry crust.^(Etymonline) Fruit pies appear about 1600; the first apple pie on record is from 1590.^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline) Something easy is from 1889, after ''easy as eating pie'' (1884).^(Etymonline) ''Pie in the sky'' is from 1911, from Joe Hill's Wobbly parody of hymns,^(Etymonline) the ''pie chart'' from 1922,^(Etymonline) and ''pie-eyed'', drunk, from 1904.^(Etymonline) A share of something, a ''slice of the pie'', is by 1967.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1199 – piehus, a bakery.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1303 – pie in Medieval Latin.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1357 – in English.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1590 – apple pie.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1889 – something easy.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1911 – pie in the sky.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1922 – pie chart.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A baked dish of [[fruit]], meat or vegetables with a top and often a base of [[pastry]].^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # A whole to be shared out: ''a bigger slice of the pie''.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # ''(informal)'' Something very easy.^(Collins 2023)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[pielike]]

+ * [[pie-eyed]]

+ * [[pie-faced]]

+ * [[piehole]]

+ * [[apple-pie]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[magpie]]

+ * [[pica]]

+ * [[piebald]]

+ * [[pied]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ Pie, the magpie, is recorded from the mid-13th century and survives in [[magpie]].^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline) In printing, pie (also pi) is a jumbled mass of type, from the 1650s.^(Etymonline)^(Hoad 1986) The pie that was a small Indian coin, a quarter of an anna, is from Hindi pāī.^(MWU 2024)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}