Description:

The term 'peri' was coined by the AXZ during the early modern period as part of the expansion of technical vocabulary with the intention that it would serve as a useful root to build more complex ideas. It comes from the word 'period' in English. Initially it was only used in the realm of science, but it is an example of a word from this era that made the jump to everyday popular use. In popular use, it has much of its original sense, but has also gained the sense of 'operate' as in, speaking of a machine as operating (being 'on') and in some contexts, meaning on but in an idle state.

Noun:

As a noun, 'peri' refers to any kind of cycle or period. This can be arbitrary chunks of time, or cyclic phenomena like the periods in the periodic table of the elements. In a scientific context, this term is a fairly flexible building block. In popular language, the sense of an arbitrary chunk of time, or especially a repeating cycle of some kind is the dominant sense.

Verb:

In a verb context, peri is an intransitive 'pali' verb meaning to cycle. The verb context is not commonly used in a scientific setting but is actually popular in regular speech. In a more colloquial sense,, 'peri' means to operate, to be on, when talking about a machine, and sometimes has the more refined sense of to idle, like an idling fuel engine.

Modifier:

The modifier form 'palis' means 'periodic' or 'cyclic'. It can be used in adjective and adverb contexts. In an adverbial context, it has a sense like, 'repeatedly on a regular cycle'.