"noisy commotion," 1746, Cambridge student slang, of uncertain origin, perhaps related to rousel "drinking bout" (c. 1600), a shortened form of carousal. Klein suggests a back-formation from rouse (n.), mistaken as a plural (compare pea from pease).

"young girl," U.S. slang, c. 2002, from American Spanish chica "girl," fem. of chico "boy," noun use of adjective meaning "small" (here used as an affectionate term of address), from Latin ciccum, literally "chick-pea," figurative of a small thing or an object of little value (compare Old French chiche).

plant of the group of the pulse family, pea, 1670s, from French légume (16c.), from Latin legumen "pulse, leguminous plant," of unknown origin. One suggestion ties it to Latin legere "to gather" (see lecture (n.)), because they can be scooped by the handful. Middle English had the word in the Latin form legumen (late 14c.).

*grə-no-, Proto-Indo-European root meaning "grain."

It forms all or part of: corn (n.1); filigree; garner; garnet; grain; granary; grange; granger; granite; granular; granule; grenade; grenadine; kernel; pomegranate.

It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Latin granum "seed," Old Church Slavonic zruno "grain," Lithuanian žirnis "pea," Old English corn.

Old English þymel "sheath or covering for the thumb," from thuma (see thumb (n.)) + instrumental suffix -el (1), used in forming names of tools (compare handle (n.)). The unetymological -b- appears mid-15c. (compare humble, nimble, etc.). Originally of leather, metal ones came into use 17c. Related: Thimbleful. Thimblerig, con game played with three thimbles and a pea or button, is attested from 1825 by this name, though references to thimble cheats, probably the same swindle, date back to 1716 (see rig (v.)).

"sickly-looking; having an unhealthy, emaciated appearance," 1835, from past participle of the obsolete or dialectal verb peak "look sickly or thin, shrink, waste away" (1540s), which is perhaps from peak on the notion of "become pointed" through emaciation. Middle English had also a verb peken "to move dejectedly, slink" (mid-15c.), but the connection is uncertain. Related: Peakedness.

"partly decomposed vegetable matter abundant in moist regions of northern Europe," where, especially in Ireland, it was an important source of fuel, c. 1200 in Scottish Latin, of unknown origin, probably from a Celtic root *pett- (source also of Cornish peyth, Welsh peth "quantity, part, thing," Old Irish pet, Breton pez "piece"). The earliest sense is not of the turf but of the cut piece of it, and the Celtic root may be from the same PIE source as piece. Peat-bog is by 1775; peat-moss (mid-13c.) originally was "a peat bog;" the meaning "sphagnum moss" (the type that grows in peat bogs) is by 1880.

1550s, "peasants collectively," from peasant + -ry.

also peace-time, "time when a country is not at war," 1550s, from peace + time (n.).

late 14c., "to adorn with pearls," from pearl (n.). From 1590s as "to take a rounded form" (intrans.); from c. 1600 as "to make into a form, or cause to assume the form and appearance, of a pearl" (trans.). Related: Pearled; pearling.