Peter

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• Australian, New-Zealand, Received-Pronunciation: /ˈpiːtə/
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• Canada, General-American: /ˈpitɚ/
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• Canada, General-American: [ˈphitɚ]
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• Canada, General-American: [ˈphiɾɚ]
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• California, Southern: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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• rhymes with -iːtə(ɹ)
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• homophone: PETA
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• homophone: pita (Received Pronunciation)
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• homophone: peter
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• homophone: ptr
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• Received-Pronunciation: /ˈpiːtə/
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• General-American: /ˈpitɚ/
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• Australia: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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• homophone: Peter
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• homophone: pita (non-rhotic)
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• CMU ARPABET: P IY1 T ER0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
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From Middle English Peter, from Old English Petrus, from Latin Petrus, from Ancient Greek Πέτρος (Pétros), from πέτρος (pétros, “stone, rock”). Doublet of Pedro, Piers, and Boutros.

US, 1902, presumably from shared initial pe-. Compare the use of other men’s names as slang terms for the penis, e.g., dick, willy, johnson, John Thomas, etc.

Unknown. Attested from the 18th century. The Canting Academy defines peeter as “A portmantle”; Green’s Dictionary of Slang list a variety of uses for peter – including trunk or portmanteau – in thieves’ cant in Britain, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. The OED suggests that it may be related to St. Peter being the holder of the keys to God's Kingdom.

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *sḗh2l Proto-Italic *sāls Latin sāl Pre-Greekder.? Ancient Greek πέτρᾱ (pétrā)bor. Latin petrae Medieval Latin sāl petrae Old French salpetrebor. Middle English saltpetre English (salt)peter? Proto-Indo-European *pesd- Proto-Indo-European *-eti Proto-Indo-European *pésdeti Proto-Italic *pezdō Latin pēdō Proto-Indo-European *-tósder. Latin -ītum Latin pēditum Old French pet Middle French pet French pet Proto-Italic *-āzi ▲ Latin -ereinflu. Latin -āre Old French -ier Middle French -er French -er French péterbor.? English peter Unknown; the following etymologies have been suggested: * From peter (“to stop (doing or saying something)”) (slang, obsolete, rare). * Since the word was first used in mining contexts, either: ** from French péter (“to explode; to break wind, fart”) (slang), from pet (“emission of digestive gases from the anus, flatus, fart”) (slang), from Latin pēditum (“flatus, fart”), from pēdō (“to break wind, fart”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pesd- (“to break wind softly”), probably imitative; or ** from (salt)peter, a variant of saltpetre (“potassium nitrate”) (the key ingredient in gunpowder), from Middle English salpeter, salpetre [and other forms] with the first element influenced by salt, from Old French salpetre (modern French salpêtre), from Medieval Latin salpetra, from Latin sāl petrae (literally “salt of stone”) (as potassium nitrate occurs encrusted on some stones), from sāl (“salt”) + petrae (the nominative or vocative plural of petra (“rock; stone”), from Ancient Greek πέτρᾱ (pétrā, “rock formation; stone”)).

Clipping of blue peter (“play a high card to call for trump”). See further etymology there.

365 source translations are retained for this English entry.

• Afrikaans: Pieter — male given name
• Albanian: Pjétër — male given name
• Albanian: Pjétro — male given name
• Albanian: Pétër — male given name
• Albanian: Pétro — male given name
• Amharic: ጴጥሮስ (p̣eṭros) — male given name
• Arabic: بُطْرُس (buṭrus) — male given name
• Arabic: بِيتَر (bītar) — male given name
• Aramaic: ܦܛܪܘܣ (Peṭrus) — male given name
• Armenian: Պետրոս (Petros) — male given name
• Asturian: Pedru — male given name
• Basque: Peio — male given name
• Basque: Peru — male given name
• Basque: Petri — male given name
• Belarusian: Пётр (Pjotr) — male given name
• Belarusian: Пятро́ (Pjatró) — male given name
• Breton: Pêr — male given name
• Bulgarian: Пѐтър (Pètǎr) — male given name
• Catalan: Pere — male given name
• Cebuano: Pedro — male given name
• Eastern Min Chinese: 彼得 (Bī-dáik) — male given name
• Chinese Mandarin: 彼得 (Bǐdé) — male given name
• Chuvash: Петӗр (Pet̬ĕr) — male given name
• Cornish: Peder — male given name
• Corsican: Petru — male given name
• Czech: Petr — male given name
• Old Czech: Petr — male given name
• Danish: Peter — male given name
• Danish: Peder — male given name
• Danish: Per — male given name
• Dutch: Pieter — male given name
• Emilian: Pîr — male given name
• Esperanto: Petro — male given name
• Estonian: Peeter — male given name
• Faroese: Petur — male given name
• Faroese: Pætur — male given name
• Faroese: Per — male given name
• Finnish: Pietari — male given name
• Finnish: Petteri — male given name
• Finnish: Petri — male given name
• Franco-Provençal: Pierro — male given name
• French: Pierre — male given name
• West-Frisian: Piter — male given name
• Friulian: Pieri — male given name
• Galician: Pedro — male given name
• Georgian: პეტრე (ṗeṭre) — male given name
• German: Peter — male given name
• German: Per — male given name
• German: Peder — male given name
• Bavarian German: Bäda — male given name
• Bavarian German: Beda — male given name
• Greek: Πέτρος (Pétros) — male given name
• Greek: Παναγιώτης (Panagiótis) — male given name
• Greek: Πήτερ (Píter) — male given name
• Greek: Πίτερ (Píter) — male given name
• Ancient Greek: Πέτρος (Pétros) — male given name
• Greenlandic: Piita — male given name
• Greenlandic: Piitaq — male given name
• Hawaiian: Pekelo — male given name
• Hebrew: פֶּטֶר (Péter) — male given name
• Hindi: पीटर (pīṭar) — male given name
• Hungarian: Péter — male given name
• Icelandic: Pétur — male given name
• Ido: Petrus — male given name
• Indonesian: Petrus — male given name
• Irish: Peadar — male given name
• Italian: Pietro — male given name
• Italian: Piero — male given name
• Japanese: ピーター (Pītā) — male given name
• Kashubian: Pioter — male given name
• Konkani: पेद्रु (pedru) — male given name
• Korean: 피터 (piteo) — male given name
• Latin: Petrus — male given name
• Latvian: Pēteris — male given name
• Limburgish: Petrus — male given name
• Lithuanian: Pẽtras — male given name
• Low German: Päiter — male given name
• Luxembourgish: Péiter — male given name
• Macedonian: Петар (Petar) — male given name
• Macedonian: Петре (Petre) — male given name
• Maltese: Pietru — male given name
• Northern Mansi: Пе̄тра (Pētra) — male given name
• Manx: Peddyr — male given name
• Māori: Pita — male given name
• Marathi: पीटर (pīṭar) — male given name
• Mongolian: Петр (Petr) — male given name
• Norman: Pièrre — male given name
• Norman: Piteur — male given name
• Norwegian: Peder — male given name
• Norwegian: Peter — male given name
• Norwegian: Petter — male given name
• Occitan: Pèire — male given name
• Occitan: Pèr — male given name
• Occitan: Pèir — male given name
• Occitan: Пєтръ (Petrŭ) — male given name
• Occitan: Ⱂⰵⱅⱃⱏ (Petrŭ) — male given name
• Old Norse: Pétr — male given name
• Persian: پیتر (piter) — male given name
• Polish: Piotr — male given name
• Old Polish: Piotr — male given name
• Portuguese: Pedro — male given name
• Romanian: Petru — male given name
• Romanian: Petre — male given name
• Romanian: Петру (Petru) — male given name
• Romanian: Петре (Petre) — male given name
• Romansh: Peider — male given name
• Russian: Пётр (Pjotr) — male given name
• Russian: Пи́тер (Píter) — male given name
• Northern Sami: Piera — male given name
• Sardinian: Pedru — male given name
• Sardinian: Perdu — male given name
• Sardinian: Predu — male given name
• Scots: Peter — male given name
• Scottish Gaelic: Peadar — male given name
• Scottish Gaelic: Pàdraig — male given name
• Serbo-Croatian: Пѐтар — male given name
• Serbo-Croatian: Pètar — male given name
• Sicilian: Petru — male given name
• Silesian: Pyjter — male given name
• Sinhalese: පේතෘස් (pētr̥s) — male given name
• Slovak: Peter — male given name
• Slovene: Péter — male given name
• Slovincian: Pjôter — male given name
• Lower Sorbian: Pětš — male given name
• Upper Sorbian: Pětr — male given name
• Spanish: Pedro — male given name
• Swahili: Petro — male given name
• Swedish: Per — male given name
• Swedish: Peter — male given name
• Swedish: Petter — male given name
• Tagalog: Pedro — male given name
• Tamil: பீட்டர் (pīṭṭar) — male given name
• Thai: ปีเตอร์ (bpii-dtə̂ə) — male given name
• Tigrinya: ጴጥሮስ (p̣eṭros) — male given name
• Turkish: Petrus — male given name
• Turkish: Petros — male given name
• Ukrainian: Петро́ (Petró) — male given name
• Ukrainian: Пі́тер (Píter) — male given name
• Urdu: پطرس (Piṭrus) — male given name
• Venetan: Piero — male given name
• Vietnamese: Phêrô — male given name
• Walloon: Pire — male given name
• Waray-Waray: Pedro — male given name
• Welsh: Pedr — male given name
• Wolof: Piyeer — male given name
• Yakut: Бүөтүр (Büötür) — male given name
• Yiddish: פּעטרוס (petrus) — male given name
• Zealandic: Petrus — male given name
• Afrikaans: Petrus — the Apostle
• Aghwan: 𐕗𐔴𐕜𐕙𐕒𐕚 (ṗeṭros) — the Apostle
• Albanian: Pjétri — the Apostle
• Albanian: Pétro — the Apostle
• Amharic: ጴጥሮስ (p̣eṭros) — the Apostle
• Arabic: بُطْرُس (buṭrus) — the Apostle
• Aramaic: ܦܛܪܘܣ (Peṭraus) — the Apostle
• Armenian: Պետրոս (Petros) — the Apostle
• Basque: Peio — the Apostle
• Basque: Peru — the Apostle
• Basque: Petri — the Apostle
• Belarusian: Пётр (Pjotr) — the Apostle
• Breton: Pêr — the Apostle
• Bulgarian: Пе́тър (Pétǎr) — the Apostle
• Cebuano: Pedro — the Apostle
• Cherokee: ᏈᏓ (quida) — the Apostle
• Chinese Cantonese: 彼得 (bei2 dak1) — the Apostle
• Chinese Cantonese: 伯多祿 /伯多禄 (baak3 do1 luk6) — the Apostle
• Chinese Cantonese: 伯鐸 /伯铎 (baak3 dok6) — the Apostle
• Chinese Cantonese: 裴特若 (pui4 dak6 joek6) — the Apostle
• Eastern Min Chinese: 彼得 (Bī-dáik) — the Apostle
• Eastern Min Chinese: 伯多祿 /伯多禄 (Báe̤k-dŏ̤-lṳ̆k) — the Apostle
• Eastern Min Chinese: 伯鐸 /伯铎 (Báe̤k-dŏk) — the Apostle
• Hakka Chinese: 彼得 (Pí-tet) — the Apostle
• Chinese: 彼得 (Pí-tek) — the Apostle
• Chinese: 伯多祿 /伯多禄 (Pek-to-lo̍k) — the Apostle
• Chinese Mandarin: 彼得 (Bǐdé) — the Apostle
• Chinese Mandarin: 伯多祿 /伯多禄 (Bóduōlù) — the Apostle
• Chinese Mandarin: 伯鐸 /伯铎 (Bóduó) — the Apostle
• Chinese Mandarin: 裴特若 (Péitèruò) — the Apostle
• Maore Comorian: Monye — the Apostle
• Corsican: Petru — the Apostle
• Czech: Petr — the Apostle
• Danish: Peter — the Apostle
• Dutch: Petrus — the Apostle
• Emilian: Pîr — the Apostle
• Estonian: Peetrus — the Apostle
• Faroese: Pætur — the Apostle
• Finnish: Pietari — the Apostle
• French: Pierre — the Apostle
• West-Frisian: Petrus — the Apostle
• Friulian: Pieri — the Apostle
• Georgian: პეტრე (ṗeṭre) — the Apostle
• German: Petrus — the Apostle
• Greek: Πέτρος (Pétros) — the Apostle
• Ancient Greek: Πέτρος (Pétros) — the Apostle
• Greenlandic: Piita — the Apostle
• Greenlandic: Piitaq — the Apostle
• Gujarati: પિતર (pitar) — the Apostle
• Hawaiian: Petero — the Apostle
• Hebrew: פטרוס — the Apostle
• Hindi: पतरस (patras) — the Apostle
• Hungarian: Péter — the Apostle
• Icelandic: Pétur — the Apostle
• Ido: Petrus — the Apostle
• Indonesian: Petrus — the Apostle
• Irish: Peadar — the Apostle
• Old Irish: Petur — the Apostle
• Italian: Pietro — the Apostle
• Japanese: ペトロ (Petoro) — the Apostle
• Japanese: ペテロ (Petero) — the Apostle
• Japanese: ペトロス (Petorosu) — the Apostle
• Kazakh: Петір (Petır) — the Apostle
• Konkani: पेद्रु (pedru) — the Apostle
• Korean: 베드로 (Bedeuro) — the Apostle
• Central Kurdish: پێترۆس (pêtros) — the Apostle
• Central Kurdish: بوتڕوس (butrrus) — the Apostle
• Latin: Petrus — the Apostle
• Latvian: Pēteris — the Apostle
• Limburgish: Petrus — the Apostle
• Lithuanian: Pẽtras — the Apostle
• Low German: Päiter — the Apostle
• Macedonian: Петар (Petar) — the Apostle
• Malay: Petrus — the Apostle
• Maltese: Pietru — the Apostle
• Manchu: ᡦᡳᠶᡝᡨᡝᡵ (piyeter) — the Apostle
• Manx: Peddyr — the Apostle
• Māori: Pita — the Apostle
• Mongolian: Петр (Petr) — the Apostle
• Mongolian: Хад (Xad) — the Apostle
• Norman: Pièrre — the Apostle
• Norwegian: Peter — the Apostle
• Old Church Slavonic: Петръ (Petrŭ) — the Apostle
• Old English: Petrus — the Apostle
• Old Norse: Pétr — the Apostle
• Persian: پطرس (petros) — the Apostle
• Polish: Piotr — the Apostle
• Portuguese: Pedro — the Apostle
• Romanian: Petru — the Apostle
• Russian: Пётр (Pjotr) — the Apostle
• Northern Sami: Biehtár — the Apostle
• Scots: Peter — the Apostle
• Scottish Gaelic: Peadar — the Apostle
• Serbo-Croatian: Пѐтар — the Apostle
• Serbo-Croatian: Pètar — the Apostle
• Sicilian: Santu Petru — the Apostle
• Sindhi: پطرس (pt̤rs) — the Apostle
• Sinhalese: ශුද්ධවූ පේදුරු තුමා (śuddhawū pēduru tumā) — the Apostle
• Slovak: Peter — the Apostle
• Slovene: Peter — the Apostle
• Slovincian: Pjétrus — the Apostle
• Somali: Butros — the Apostle
• Spanish: Pedro — the Apostle
• Swahili: Petro — the Apostle
• Swedish: Petrus — the Apostle
• Tagalog: Pedro — the Apostle
• Tamil: இராயப்பர் (irāyappar) — the Apostle
• Thai: เปโตร (bpee-dtroo) — the Apostle
• Tibetan: པེ་ཏྲོ (pe tro) — the Apostle
• Tigrinya: ጴጥሮስ (p̣eṭros) — the Apostle
• Ukrainian: Петро́ (Petró) — the Apostle
• Urdu: پطرس — the Apostle
• Vietnamese: Phêrô — the Apostle
• Vietnamese: Phierơ — the Apostle
• Waray-Waray: Pedro — the Apostle
• Welsh: Pedr — the Apostle
• Wolof: Piyeer — the Apostle
• Zealandic: Petrus — the Apostle
• Afrikaans: Petrus — one of the epistles of Peter
• Amharic: የጴጥሮስ መልእክት (yäp̣eṭros mälʾəkt) — one of the epistles of Peter
• Aramaic: ܦܛܪܘܣ (Peṭraus) — one of the epistles of Peter
• Armenian: Պետրոս (Petros) — one of the epistles of Peter
• Awadhi: पतरस (patras) — one of the epistles of Peter
• Basque: Peio — one of the epistles of Peter
• Basque: Peru — one of the epistles of Peter
• Basque: Petri — one of the epistles of Peter
• Breton: Pêr — one of the epistles of Peter
• Bulgarian: Петър (Petǎr) — one of the epistles of Peter
• Burmese: ရှင်ပေတရုဩဝါဒစာပဌမစောင် (hrangpeta.ru.au:wada.capa.hta.ma.caung) — one of the epistles of Peter
• Burmese: ရှင်ပေတရုဩဝါဒစာဒုတိယစောင် (hrangpeta.ru.au:wada.cadu.ti.ya.caung) — one of the epistles of Peter
• Cebuano: Pedro — one of the epistles of Peter
• Chinese Cantonese: 彼得 (bei2 dak1) — one of the epistles of Peter
• Eastern Min Chinese: 彼得 (Bī-dáik) — one of the epistles of Peter
• Chinese Mandarin: 彼得 (Bǐdé) — one of the epistles of Peter
• Corsican: Petru — one of the epistles of Peter
• Czech: Petrův — one of the epistles of Peter
• Danish: Petersbrev — one of the epistles of Peter
• Dutch: Peter — one of the epistles of Peter
• Faroese: Pætur — one of the epistles of Peter
• Finnish: Pietarin kirje — one of the epistles of Peter
• French: Pierre — one of the epistles of Peter
• French: P — one of the epistles of Peter
• West-Frisian: Piter — one of the epistles of Peter
• German: Peter — one of the epistles of Peter
• Bavarian German: Beda — one of the epistles of Peter
• Greek: Πέτρος (Pétros) — one of the epistles of Peter
• Ancient Greek: Πέτρος (Pétros) — one of the epistles of Peter
• Greenlandic: Piita — one of the epistles of Peter
• Greenlandic: Piitaq — one of the epistles of Peter
• Hawaiian: Petero — one of the epistles of Peter
• Hindi: पतरस (patras) — one of the epistles of Peter
• Hungarian: Péter — one of the epistles of Peter
• Icelandic: Pétur — one of the epistles of Peter
• Ido: Petrus — one of the epistles of Peter
• Indonesian: Petrus — one of the epistles of Peter
• Irish: Peadar — one of the epistles of Peter
• Italian: Pietro — one of the epistles of Peter
• Japanese: ペテロの手紙 (Petero no Tegami) — one of the epistles of Peter
• Kazakh: Петірдің хаты (Petırdıñ xaty) — one of the epistles of Peter
• Khmer: ពេត្រុសទី (peitroh-tii-) — one of the epistles of Peter
• Konkani: पेद्रुचें पत्र (pedrucẽ patra) — one of the epistles of Peter
• Central Kurdish: پەترۆس (petros) — one of the epistles of Peter
• Latin: Petrus — one of the epistles of Peter
• Latvian: Pēteris — one of the epistles of Peter
• Limburgish: Petrus — one of the epistles of Peter
• Lithuanian: Pẽtras — one of the epistles of Peter
• Lithuanian: Pẽtro laiškai̇̃ — one of the epistles of Peter
• Low German: Päiter — one of the epistles of Peter
• Macedonian: Петрово (Petrovo) — one of the epistles of Peter
• Malay: Petrus — one of the epistles of Peter
• Malayalam: പത്രൊസ് (patrosŭ) — one of the epistles of Peter
• Maltese: Pietru — one of the epistles of Peter
• Manx: Peddyr — one of the epistles of Peter
• Māori: Pita — one of the epistles of Peter
• Norwegian: Peter — one of the epistles of Peter
• Norwegian: Pet — one of the epistles of Peter
• Odia: ପିତରଙ୍କ (pitaraṅka) — one of the epistles of Peter
• Polish: List świętego Piotra Apostoła — one of the epistles of Peter
• Polish: List św. Piotra — one of the epistles of Peter
• Polish: List Piotra — one of the epistles of Peter
• Polish: P — one of the epistles of Peter
• Portuguese: Pedro — one of the epistles of Peter
• Punjabi: ਪਤਰਸ (patras) — one of the epistles of Peter
• Romanian: Petru — one of the epistles of Peter
• Scots: Peter — one of the epistles of Peter
• Scottish Gaelic: Peadar — one of the epistles of Peter
• Slovak: Petrov — one of the epistles of Peter
• Slovene: Peter — one of the epistles of Peter
• Somali: Butros — one of the epistles of Peter
• Spanish: Pedro — one of the epistles of Peter
• Swahili: Petro — one of the epistles of Peter
• Swedish: Petrusbreven — one of the epistles of Peter
• Tagalog: Pedro — one of the epistles of Peter
• Tamil: பேதுரு (pēturu) — one of the epistles of Peter
• Thai: เปโตร — one of the epistles of Peter
• Turkish: Petrus'un — one of the epistles of Peter
• Uzbek: Butrus — one of the epistles of Peter
• Vietnamese: Phêrô — one of the epistles of Peter
• Vietnamese: Phierơ — one of the epistles of Peter
• Waray-Waray: Pedro — one of the epistles of Peter
• Welsh: Pedr — one of the epistles of Peter
• Zealandic: Petrus — one of the epistles of Peter
• Bulgarian: Питър (Pitǎr) — surname
• Finnish: Pietarinen — surname
• Finnish: Pietarila — surname
• Czech: pták — slang: penis — see also penis
• Czech: čurák — slang: penis — see also penis
• Finnish: jorma — slang: penis — see also penis
• Indonesian: kontol — slang: penis — see also penis
• Italian: pene — slang: penis — see also penis
• Italian: pisello — slang: penis — see also penis
• Italian: cazzo — slang: penis — see also penis
• Italian: uccello — slang: penis — see also penis
• Portuguese: pênis — slang: penis — see also penis
• Czech: vyprchávat — of a vein of ore: to be depleted of ore
• Czech: ztrácet se — of a vein of ore: to be depleted of ore
• Finnish: ehtyä — of a vein of ore: to be depleted of ore