pea

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“
You're right," he said, "it belongs to the Pea Family But how can that be," I objected, "when the pea is a weak, clinging, straggling herb, and the locust a big, thorny hardwood tree Yes, that is true," he replied, "as to the difference in size, but it is also true that in all their essential characters they are alike, and therefore they must belong to one and the same family.

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Definitions (75)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (5)

  1. noun A member of the pea family.
  2. noun A Eurasian climbing annual vine (Pisum sativum) cultivated in all temperate zones, having compound leaves with terminal leaflets modified into tendrils and globose, edible seeds enclosed in a green, elongated pod.
  3. noun The seed of this plant, used as a vegetable.
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Examples (50)

  • This disadvantage of one of our most valuable crops is to be taken into account, but it will not prevent rapid increase in acreage as the merit of the soybean becomes known The Canada Pea.--Among field peas there are many varieties, but the one chiefly grown in the United States under the general name of the Canada pea is the Golden Vine. —  Crops and Methods for Soil Improvement
  • The next day the sexton came for the roast pea, and when he heard what had become of it, he said they must either return the roast pea or give him the cock. —  Italian Popular Tales
  • With this expectation we kept to ourselves ready to see the noble procession when it should start on its way; but far other things were in store for me, and an instrument called a pea-spitter, wherewith Charles had provided himself for the purpose of saluting various of the serving-men as they passed, was rendered useless. —  Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 55, No. 344, June, 1844
  • He used the long, heavy, Kentucky rifle, which, from the ball being little larger than a pea, was called a pea-rifle. —  The Dog Crusoe and his Master
  • It was difficult to think of Dora as preferred before Annie, if one did not take into account that there are people who will turn away from June roses to gather a cluster of honeysuckle, or pick a sweet pea--people to whom there is an ineffable charm in simple maidenliness and sweetness. —  A Houseful of Girls
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Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Back-formation from Middle English pease (mistaken for pl.), from Old English pise, piose, from Late Latin pīsa, variant of Latin pīsum, from Greek pisos, pison.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. A modern form, assumed as singular of the supposed plural pease: see pease. The plural of pea is peas, as ‘as like as two peas,’ ‘a bushel of peas,’ with reference to the individual seeds, as in ‘a bushel of beans’; but when used collectively the old singular pease is properly used, as ‘a bushel of pease,’ like ‘a bushel of wheat or corn.’
  2. = Scots pae, pa. (in pajock); from Middle English pe- (in comp.), pa, po, poo, from Anglo-Saxon pāwa, also peá (once, in dative Peán), masculine, pāwe, feminine, = Dutch paauw = Middle Low German pawe, pauwe = Old High German phāwo, fāwo, phāho, fāho, phāo, Middle High German phāwe, pfāwe, phā, pfā, German pfawe, pfaw, pfowe, pfow, pfauw, etc., now pfaue, pfau, dial. pfob, pfaub, etc., = Icel, pā, pāi (as a nickname; in modern use only in comp. pā-fugl = Swedish påfogel = Danish paafugl = English peafowl, q. v.) = French paon (later obsolete English pawn) = Spanish pavon = Portuguese pavão = Italian pavone, from Latin pavo(n-), Middle Latin also pavus, masculine, pava, feminine, from Greek *ταών (in genitive ταω̄νος, etc.), usually ταώς or ταῶς, also written ταὠς, where the aspirate represents the earlier digamma, orig. *τα#567ώς = Arabic Turk, tāwūs = Hindustani tāūs (in Hindustani also called mor), from Persian tāwus, tāus, a peacock; cf. Old Tamil tōkei, tōgei, a peacock.
 

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