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Pourpoint
The pourpoint (also pour-point) is a close-fitting padded, quilted medieval garment worn beneath armor for cushioning, over mail, or as civilian fashion, fastened to hose by points; famed examples include the Charles de Blois pourpoint in Lyon.
Poutine
Poutine is a Québécois fast-food dish of french fries topped with fresh cheese curds and hot brown gravy, created in Centre-du-Québec around 1957 at Warwick and 1964 at Drummondville, and now a national Canadian dish.
Powdered sugar
Powdered sugar, also called confectioners' sugar, icing sugar, or 10x sugar, is granulated cane or beet sugar ground to a fine powder with about 3-5% cornstarch anticaking agent; used for icings, glazes, and dusting.
Power loom
Power loom: mechanically powered weaving machine patented by Edmund Cartwright in 1785, also called mechanized loom. Weaves cloth roughly 10 times faster than handlooms; dominates Indian cloth output at about 60%.
Powerade
Powerade is The Coca-Cola Company's isotonic sports drink, introduced in 1988 and launched in the US in 1992 to rival Gatorade; reformulated with 50% more electrolytes, sold in 80 countries, and official sports drink of FIFA World Cup 2026, Team USA, and MLS.
Pozole
Pozole (posole) is a Mexican hominy soup of nixtamalized cacahuazintle corn simmered with pork or chicken, in white, red, and green regional varieties, finished at the table with lettuce, radish, onion, oregano, chile, and lime, and eaten at September independence festivities.
Prabal Gurung
Prabal Gurung is a Nepalese American fashion designer in New York, founder of his eponymous womenswear label launched in 2009, known for eveningwear and runway activism on immigration and women's rights.
Practical joke
Practical joke (prank): a physical-action trick intended to embarrass or make its target seem foolish, studied by folklorists as vernacular folk art, notably in Moira Marsh's Practically Joking (2015).
Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (प्रधानमंत्री गरीब कल्याण अन्न योजना)
Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY, प्रधानमंत्री गरीब कल्याण अन्न योजना) is India's free food grain scheme under NFSA 2013: launched April 2020 as COVID relief giving 5 kg extra grain monthly to ~80 crore beneficiaries, renamed in 2023 for free NFSA distribution, and extended five years to December 2028 with ₹11.80 lakh crore outlay.
Pradhan Mantri Matri Vandana Yojana
Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) is India's national maternity benefit scheme, launched 1 January 2017 under the NFSA 2013, paying ₹5,000 via DBT for a first child and ₹6,000 for a second girl child under Mission Shakti's PMMVY 2.0.
Prairie oyster
Prairie oyster: a nonalcoholic hangover-remedy drink of raw egg with intact yolk, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, vinegar, salt, and pepper, first printed by Leo Engel in 1878; also means cooked bull calf testicles.
Praline
Praline, from French praslin, names three distinct confections: French caramelized nuts and praliné paste, Belgian filled chocolates since Neuhaus 1912, and the soft cream-and-pecan New Orleans patty.
Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (प्रवासी भारतीय दिवस)
Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (प्रवासी भारतीय दिवस), India's Overseas Indians' Day, observed 9 January since 2003 marking Gandhi's 1915 return from South Africa; biennial MEA conventions and the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award distinguish it.
Prawn cracker
Prawn cracker (krupuk udang, keropok udang, bánh phồng tôm, kropeck): a Southeast Asian deep-fried snack of tapioca starch, shrimp and seasonings, steamed, sliced, dried, and puffed in hot oil; Codex protein grades and Thai market size distinguish it.
Pre-engagement ring
Pre-engagement ring, also called a promise or friendship ring, is jewelry given before a proposal to signal commitment and intended marriage, worn usually on the right hand, with 16th-century European roots.
Pre-Pottery Neolithic A
Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) is the earliest subdivision of the Levantine Neolithic, a period of farming villages without pottery defined by Kathleen Kenyon in 1957.
Preppy
Preppy (preppie) is an American informal term for preparatory-school students and graduates and for the classic, neat dress style associated with them, rooted in Ivy League campus wear, peaking in the 1980s, and repeatedly revived since.
Preserved Food
Preserved food: treated to resist spoilage via drying, salting, fermentation, canning (Appert, 1795 prize), refrigeration, freeze-drying, and irradiation; water activity 0.85 pathogen cutoff.
Presidents' Day
Presidents' Day, also called Washington's Birthday, is the US federal holiday on the third Monday of February, legally named Washington's Birthday under 5 U.S.C. 6103, moved from February 22 by the 1968 Uniform Monday Holiday Act, with varied state observance and major retail sales.
Pret a Manger
Pret a Manger (Pret), British sandwich and coffee chain founded in London in 1986 by Julian Metcalfe and Sinclair Beecham; shop-kitchen same-day food, organic arabica coffee, Club Pret £5/month drink subscription, 717 shops in 20 markets, £1.2bn 2024 system sales.
PrettyLittleThing
PrettyLittleThing, also known as PLT, is a British online fast-fashion retailer founded in Manchester in 2012 by brothers Adam and Umar Kamani and owned by Debenhams Group.
Pretzel
Pretzel (German Brezel/Brezn): knotted alkaline-dipped bread from southern Germany; soft lye bread or hard snack; 3–5% NaOH bath, Bavarian vs Swabian styles, EU-protected Bayerische Breze, $2.9B US market.
Pretzel sticks
Pretzel sticks: straight-rod form of hard pretzel, extruded, lye-dipped (1.25% NaOH, 90-93°C), baked; Pennsylvania-centered US industry, $2.75B category, 1,240 mg sodium per 100 g.
Priestly breastplate
Priestly breastplate (choshen, חֹשֶׁן; choshen mishpat), one of the eight garments of the Israelite high priest: a folded square pouch of gold, blue, purple, scarlet, and linen bearing twelve tribal stones and the Urim and Thummim.
Primark
Primark (trading as Penneys in Ireland) is an Irish-founded international value clothing retailer, part of Associated British Foods, founded by Arthur Ryan in Dublin in 1969, with 500+ stores across 20 countries, a store-led low-price model, and a planned 2027 demerger from ABF.
Prime (drink)
Prime (drink) is a beverage brand founded in 2022 by Logan Paul and KSI, sold as caffeine-free Prime Hydration and caffeinated Prime Energy with 200 mg caffeine per 12-oz can, known for viral influencer marketing and youth-safety controversy.
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Costumes
The Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Costumes honors television costume design and supervision by honoring achievements across five current categories, including Period, Fantasy/Sci-Fi, and Contemporary series.
Prince Albert (genital piercing)
Prince Albert (PA) genital piercing: jewelry through the urethral opening exiting under the glans of the penis, one of the most common male genital piercings. Covers procedure, healing times, risks such as fistula and urethral injury, and the Victorian naming myth.
Prince Egon von Fürstenberg
Prince Egon von Fürstenberg (Eduard Egon, 1946–2004), Swiss-born aristocrat and fashion designer, son of Tassilo von Fürstenberg and Clara Agnelli; ex-husband of Diane von Furstenberg; founded his own label in 1977 and debuted in Rome haute couture in 1991.
Pringles
Pringles: American stackable saddle-shaped potato crisps in a tubular can, launched by Procter & Gamble in 1968. Inventors Baur, Liepa, Wolfe. Owned by Kellogg 2012, Kellanova, then Mars since December 2025. Over 160 flavors, sold in 140+ countries.