PIE  . (1) The name of the

bird more generally known as the magpie (q.v.) . The word comes through the French from Lat. pica (q.v.) . It is probably from the black and white or spotted appearance of the bird that the name "pie" or "pye" (Lat. pica) was given to the ordinal, a table or calendar which supplemented that which gave the services for the fixed festivals, &c., and pointed out the effect on them of the festivals rendered movable by the changing date of Easter . An English act of 1549 (3 & 4 Edw . VI. c. ro) abolished " pies" with manuals, legends, primers and other service books . The parti-coloured appearance of the magpie also gives rise to the term " piebald," applied to an animal, more particularly a horse, which is marked with large irregular patches of white and black; where the colour is white and some colour other than black, the more appropriate word is " skew-bald," i.e. marked with " skew " or irregular patches . (2) A dish made of meat, fish or other ingredients, also of vegetables or fruit, baked in a covering of pastry; in English usage, where " fruit " is the ingredient, the dish is generally called a " tart," except in the case of " apple-pie." The word appears early in the 14th century of meat or fish pies . The expression " to eat humble-pie," i.e. to make an apology, to retract or recant, is a facetious adaptation of " umbles " (O . Fr. nombles, connected with Lat. lumbus, loin or umbilicus, navel), the inner parts of a deer, to " humble " (Lat. humilis, lowly) . An " umble-pie," made of the inner parts of a deer or other animal, was once a favourite dish . " Printers' pie," i.e. a mass of confused type, is a transferred sense of " pie," the dish, or of " pie," the ordinal, from the difficulty of decipherment .