The act of putting a silent “p” in front of a word so that one can create a new word that is pronounced exactly the same way so as to distinguish it from all other instances of the same word. A psmithsized word can mean exactly the same thing, something completely different or anything in between.

The word was first coined by Rupert Psmith, a much loved fictional character from phumor writer P. G. Wodehouse. According to Psmith himself, the P is silent “as in pshrimp” and he added it to distinguish himself from other Smiths. Some scholars believe that the “P.” in P. G. Wodehouse was in fact a psmithization by G. Wodehouse, however others believe this ptheory is a bunch of pbaloney.

Needless to say, psmithisize is pronounced the same way as smithisize although it means something completely different.