There’s only one word in the English language staring with “pm-”
If so what is the word?
Nothing in my Chambers dictionary between “plywood” and “pneuma”.
As of the revisions to the O.E.D. up through 1986, the only thing between plymouth and pneu was the abbreviation P.M. and the note on the initial pn- construction. (There has been a subsequent complete revision which I do not own.)
Niobium Knight, you might want to read the rules. Your thread title is so vague as to be meaningless. Also, you have posted the same question about Israel in two different forums which is called crossposting and is a no no around here. As I say, you might want to have a look at the rules and also observe how the regulars do things.
Geez, what are you, the board nazi? Chill out.
clonestyle, behave. Sailor is trying to help someone here. I suggest you read the rules too, since personal attacks aren’t allowed on this board - outside of The BBQ Pit, that is.
And before you ask: yes, I AM the board nazi.
Sorry, Coldfire, I didn’t see your post. But I agreed with Sailor entirely and have modified the title of this topic to be more useful.
There’s a tendency for words beginning with a silent “p” in English to be Greek borrowings… but a quick online search turns up no Greek words beginning “pm”.
It’s an odd combination for the start of a word… sort of implies that it begins with a bilabial stop that starts out voiceless and oral but ends up being voiced and nasal. Not impossible, of course, but a bit iffy in terms of both Greek and English phonotactic rules. (Think world leaders - say “Archbishop Makarios” and drop the “Archbisho-”, or “Daniel Arap Moi” and drop the “Daniel Ara-”. It doesn’t come naturally for an English speaker.)
My guess is that, if this word exists, it’s some really obscure borrowing from who-knows-what language. The fact that Tom~ can’t find it in a fairly recent OED isn’t a good sign - the OED is pretty darn good when it comes to obscure borrowings, archaic and variant forms, and hapax legomena in general.
Is it possible that this is really, one of those “joke” questions, along the lines of “did you know that the word ‘gullible’ isn’t in the dictionary?” Can’t think of what the punchline might be, though.