pe
UK[piː]US[piː]
n
The 17th letter of the modern English alphabet.
n
A written or printed representation of the letter P or p.
Etymology
The word 'pe' is the English name for the letter P. Its name originates from the Semitic word 'pe', meaning 'mouth', which was the name of the corresponding letter in the Phoenician alphabet. The Greeks adopted this letter, renaming it 'pi'. The Etruscans and later the Romans borrowed it, and the Latin name 'pe' was used for the letter in the Roman alphabet. This name was passed directly into English through the medieval and modern tradition of naming the letters of the Latin script.
Analysis
The word 'pe' is a simplex word representing a single letter of the alphabet. It does not contain segmentable morphemes in the modern English sense.
Examples
The word 'apple' starts with the letter pe.
In the spelling bee, she was asked to spell a word beginning with a silent pe.
The child traced the shape of the pe in her workbook.