What does the letter P stand for?

Not Phlipped.

~Barb

​P ​- position

Why "P"?

Is not symmetrical. It helps to visualize "portrait". "landscape" and flipped.

I think it's this.

Jeffrey, I'm looking for the definitive historical origin. I actually don't know the answer. But I'm in the business of answering questions for students (and myself, as a long-time practitioner of this page layout art).

I like the theory that it comes from the P in the print dialog box imagery. The word Portrait sounds likely, but I wish we could trace the origin, and know for sure.

My guess is nothing. It will have been inherited from the classic page setup icon, where maybe the fact that it's the first letter of 'page' was relevant, but I think the main reason the capital P was chosen is because when it's flipped and rotated in different ways, they look particularly distinct from one another.

I had no idea how obscured this is turning out to be!!!  

it shows the direction of flipped object, see my sample. flipped.

and this one: not flipped.

Surely it stands for Paper

Pivot

Come on, guys, dig deep! What does it stand for?

Position.

Edit: it shows if the object is rotated / flipped. Page is not touched here.