pie

Inherited from Old French pie, from Latin pica.


pie

The family had steak and kidney pie for dinner and cherry pie for dessert.

SATURNINUS: Go fetch them hither to us presently.
TITUS: Why, there they are, both baked in that pie,
Whereof their mother daintily hath fed,
Eating the flesh that she herself hath bred.

c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]:

A type of pastry that consists of an outer crust and a filling. (Savory pies are more popular in the UK and sweet pies are more popular in the US, so "pie" without qualification has different connotations in these dialects.)

Shepherd's pie is made of mince covered with mashed potato.

Any of various other, non-pastry dishes that maintain the general concept of a shell with a filling.

A paper plate covered in cream, shaving foam or custard that is thrown or rubbed in someone’s face for comical purposes, to raise money for charity, or as a form of political protest; a custard pie; a cream pie.

It is easier to get along when everyone, more or less, is getting ahead. But when the pie is shrinking, social groups are more likely to turn on each other.

2010 December 4, Evan Thomas, “Why It’s Time to Worry”, in Newsweek:

(figuratively) The whole of a wealth or resource, to be divided in parts.

(cricket) An especially badly bowled ball.

Pies are best for comparing the components of only one or two totals.

1986, Carolyn Sorensen, Henry J. Stock, Department of Education Computer Graphics Guide, page 8:

Programmers haven't exactly been wild about certain Microsoft policies — such as the price of the OS/2 developer's kit or the fib about how Microsoft Windows code would be pie to translate to the Presentation Manager.

1989, PC Mag, volume 8, number 5, page 91:

(informal) Something very easy; a piece of cake.

"Yeah, take it off!" "SHOW US YOUR PIE!" The brunette opened the catch on her G-string and let the sequinned cloth slip down, teasing them with it.

1981, William Kotzwinkle, Jack in the Box:

Yeah, some guys like to eat the old hairy pie. Women, too, or so I've heard.

2010, W. A. Moltinghorne, Magnolia Park, page 238:

Did fed time outta town pie flipper / Turn Cristal into a crooked-I sipper

1997 January 3, “Can't Nobody Hold Me Down”performed by Sean Combs ft. Mase:

My weed smoke is my lye, a ki of coke is a pie / When I'm lifted I'm high, with new clothes on I'm fly

[1998 October 18, “Ebonics”performed by Big L:

I love the cutie pies, never the zootie pies

1999 July 13, “Discipline”performed by Gang Starr ft. Total:

(slang) A kilogram of drugs, especially cocaine.

en-noun

pie (countable and uncountable, plural pies)

→ Bulgarian: пай (paj)

→ Cantonese: 批 (pai¹)

→ Finnish: pai

→ Hebrew: פַּאי

→ Japanese: パイ

desc

→ Kashubian: paja (Canada, United States)

→ Korean: 파이 (pai)

→ Malay: pai

→ Persian: پای (pây)

→ Scottish Gaelic: pàidh

→ Spanish: pay

→ Swedish: paj

→ Tok Pisin: pai

→ Welsh: pei

→ Yiddish: פּײַ (pay)

From Middle English pye, pie, pey, perhaps from Old English *pīe (“pastry”) (compare Old English pīe, pēo (“insect, bug”)), attested in early Middle English piehus (“bakery”, literally “pie-house”) c. 1199. Relation to Medieval Latin pica, pia (“pie, pastry”) is unclear, as there are no similar terms found in any Romance languages; therefore, like Irish pióg (“pie”), the Latin term may have been simply borrowed from the English.
Some sources state the word comes from Latin pīca (“magpie, jay”) (from the idea of the many ingredients put into pies likened to the tendency of magpies to bring a variety of objects back to their nests), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peyk- (“woodpecker; magpie”), though this has its controversies. However, if so, then it is a doublet of pica.


pie

I'd like to see someone pie the chairman of the board.

(transitive) To hit in the face with a pie, either for comic effect or as a means of protest (see also pieing).

(transitive) To go around (a corner) in a guarded manner.

Some of my friends drop everyone out as soon as they get a girlfriend, and they alienate people. Or they stop going out to the gym and doing things they love because they're all about the other person. When you do that you're sacrificing yourself and you will be left with nothing if you split up. You'll have to start again and get back in contact with all your mates you've pied off. Shame.

2017, Marcel Somerville, Dr Marcel's Little Book of Big Love: Your Guide to Finding Love, the Island Way, London: Blink Publishing, →ISBN, page 50:

just my luck been put in a presentation group at uni with a guy I pied on tinder last week HAHA gud

2018 September 18, @_kirstenanna, Twitter, archived from the original on 2024-01-27:

(transitive, UK, slang, often followed by off) To ignore (someone).

en-verb

pie (third-person singular simple present pies, present participle pieing, simple past and past participle pied)

pies (present singular third-person)
pieing (participle present)
pied (participle past)
pied (past)


pie

From Middle English pye, from Old French pie, from Latin pīca, feminine of pīcus (“woodpecker”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peyk- (“woodpecker; magpie”). Cognate with speight. Doublet of pica.


pie

I gave him all the money in my possession, Rs.9.8.5. – nine rupees, eight annas, and five pie – for I always keep small change as bakshish when I am in camp.

1888, Rudyard Kipling, “The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes”, in The Phantom ’Rickshaw and Other Tales, Folio Society, published 2005, page 117:

(historical) A former low-denomination coin of northern India.

From Hindi पाई (pāī, “low-denomination coin”), from Sanskrit पादिका (pādikā, “foot, shoe”), from पाद (pāda, “foot, base, quarter”) + -इक (-ika, “-ic: forming adjectives”).


pie

(zoology) Ellipsis of pie-dog: an Indian breed, a stray dog in Indian contexts.

pie-dog

From Hindi पाहि (pāhi, “migrant farmer, passer-through”), from Sanskrit पार्श्व (pārśva, “side, vicinity”).


pie

(historical) A traditional Spanish unit of length, equivalent to about 27.9 cm.

From Spanish pie (“foot, Spanish foot”), from Latin pēs (“foot, Roman foot”), from Proto-Indo-European *pṓds. Doublet of foot, pes, and pous.


pie

(letterpress typography) Alternative form of pi (“metal type that has been spilled, mixed together, or disordered”)


pie

The door of the [printing] shop was shattered. He went in. The presses were broken. The type pied.

1943, Esther Forbes Hoskins, Johnny Tremain:

(transitive) Alternative form of pi (“to spill or mix printing type”)


pie

Nadja pie stariĝis apud la kruco.

1922, Ivan H. Krestanoff (tr.), “En la tombejo”, in Nuntempaj Rakontoj, Leipzig: Ferdinand Hirt & Sohn, translation of original by G. P. Stamatov, page 15:


pie

Inherited from Old French pie, from Latin pīca (“magpie”), feminine of pīcus (“woodpecker”).


pie

(reintegrationist norm) inflection of piar:

first/third-person singular present subjunctive

inflection of piar:
third-person singular imperative


pie

la-adv

piē (comparative pius, superlative pissimē)

piē (canonical)
pius (comparative)
pissimē (superlative)


pie

es biju pie tēva

māja pie jūras

braukšu pie tevis


pie

Vieille pie a plus d'un pertus à son nic.

1903, Edgar MacCulloch, “Proverbs, Weather Sayings, etc.”, in Guernsey Folk Lore, page 520:

An old magpie has more than one hole in her nest.

From Old French pie, from Latin pica, feminine of picus (“woodpecker”).


pie

fro-noun

pie oblique singular, f (oblique plural pies, nominative singular pie, nominative plural pies)

pie oblique singular or (canonical feminine)
pies (oblique plural)
pie (nominative singular)
pies (nominative plural)

Champenois: pie

French: pie

Jersey Norman: pie ⇒ piêté

desctree

→ Middle English: pye
English: pie ⇒ magpie, piebald, pied
Scots: pie ⇒ pyat
→ Scottish Gaelic: pitheid
Yola: pee
→ Welsh: pi, pia ⇒ piod


pie

Vinierõ al flũ con el arca del teſtamẽt e q̃ndo cataron los pies de los ſac̃dotes enel agua partierõ ſe las aguas adieſtro ⁊ aſinieſtro e eſtidierõ cuemo mõtõ […]

c. 1200, Almerich, Fazienda de Ultramar, f. 28r:

They came to the river with the Ark of the Testimony, and when the feet of the priests touched the water the waters parted to the right and to the left, and they stood up like a heap […]

Aduxo moẏſẽ el pueblo del albergada. Al encuẽtro del nr̃o sẽnor e eſtidierõ al pie del mõt en mõte sẏnaẏ.

c. 1200, Almerich, Fazienda de Ultramar, f. 18r:

Moses led the people from the camp to meet Our Lord, and they stood at the foot of the mountain, Mount Sinai.

Ladino: pye

Spanish: pie

From Latin pedem, singular accusative of pēs, from Proto-Indo-European *pṓds.


pie

English or American foot (a unit of length equal to 30.48 cm)

(historical, measure) pie, a Spanish foot (a former unit of length equivalent to about 27.9 cm)

(design, typography) footer (the bottom of a page or design)

Inherited from Old Spanish pie, from Latin pedem.
Cognate with Asturian pie, Galician and Portuguese pé, and Catalan peu. As an English unit, a calque of English foot.


pie

first-person singular preterite indicative of piar

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.