Pisgah

English

Etymology

From Biblical Hebrew פסגּה (Piṣgāh), a name for the peak of Mount Nebo, meaning literally “top of a mountain; summit”.

Noun

Pisgah (plural Pisgahs)

1. (chiefly attributive, often figurative) A glimpse of a distant sight; an overview of a situation; a position that affords a view.
   • 1992, Bryan Collier Short, Cast by Means of Figures: Herman Melville's Rhetorical Development, page 153:

     Although the development of this work, complex and compelling in its own right, lies beyond the scope of the present study, a “Pisgah view” of Billy Budd […] discloses its presentation, among many other things, of a sharply drawn retrospective allegory of Melville’s rhetorical career.

Proper noun

Pisgah

1. The name of a mountain in the Bible. Usually refers to biblical Mount Pisgah or Mount Nebo.
   • 1827, Lydia Sigourney, Poems, On reading the Life of Quincy, by his Son, page 135:

     —With swimming glance,
     Like him who erst from Pisgah's cliff descried
     The unenter'd land of promise,—he survey'd
     That emerald shore where slept in hallow'd graves
     His ancestors, where rose in beauteous strength
     The city of his joy,—

   • 1869 [1650], Thomas Fuller, A Pisgah Sight of Palestine and the Confines Thereof‎^[1], page 70:

     On Pisgah, Moses surveyed the whole land of Canaan, and although he was advantaged by the height of the place and the clearness of his eyes, […] yet much of miracle must needs be admitted in so plain and far discovery.

2. Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina, United States.
3. A town in Jackson County, Alabama, United States.
4. An unincorporated community in Gilmer County, Georgia.
5. A city in Harrison County, Iowa.
6. An unincorporated community in Morgan County, Illinois.
7. An unincorporated community in Woodford County, Kentucky.
8. An unincorporated community in Charles County, Maryland.
9. An unincorporated community in Rankin County, Mississippi.
10. An unincorporated community in Cooper County, Missouri.
11. An unincorporated community in Randolph County, North Carolina.
12. An unincorporated community in Butler County, Ohio.
13. A ghost town in Navarro County, Texas.
14. An unincorporated community in Preston County, West Virginia.
15. Willoughby State Forest in Vermont, United States.

References

• “Pisgah, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, June 2006.