Named regular expression group “(?Pregexp)”: what does “P” stand for?

In Python, the (?P<group_name>…) syntax allows one to refer to the matched string through its name:

>>> import re
>>> match = re.search('(?P<name>.*) (?P<phone>.*)', 'John 123456')
>>> match.group('name')
'John'

What does “P” stand for? I could not find any hint in the official documentation.

I would love to get ideas about how to help my students remember this syntax. Knowing what “P” does stand for (or might stand for) would be useful.

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