# pensum
## English
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin pensum. Doublet of peso.

### Noun

pensum (plural pensums)
* (dated) A task or imposition set as a school punishment.
** 1955, Samuel Beckett, translated by Patrick Bowles, Molloy:You invent nothing, you think you are inventing, you think you are escaping, and all you do is stammer out your lesson, the remnants of a pensum one day got by heart and long forgotten, life without tears, as it wept.

## Danish
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin pēnsum.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /pɛnsɔm/, [ˈpʰɛnsɔm]

### Noun

pensum n (singular definite pensummet, plural indefinite pensa)
* syllabus, curriculum
* task, assignment
* examination requirements

#### Inflection
## French
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin pēnsum. Doublet of poids, which was inherited.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /pɛ̃.sɔm/
* Audio:(file)

### Noun

pensum m (plural pensums)
* (archaic) pensum (at school); lines (UK)
* chore

### Further reading

* “pensum”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

## Latin
### Etymology

Neuter of past participle of pendō.

### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /ˈpen.sum/, [ˈpẽːs̠ʊ̃ˑ]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /ˈpen.sum/, [ˈpɛnsum]

### Noun

pēnsum n (genitive pēnsī); second declension
* allotment, portion, weight (of wool measured out to a slave to spin in a day)
** 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 2.743:lūmen ad exiguum famulae data pēnsa trahēbantBy a dim light the handmaids were spinning their given allotments of wool.
* work quota, a day’s work
* task, job, duty, assignment, engagement

#### Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).
| Case | Singular | Plural |
| Nominative | pēnsum | pēnsa |
| Genitive | pēnsī | pēnsōrum |
| Dative | pēnsō | pēnsīs |
| Accusative | pēnsum | pēnsa |
| Ablative | pēnsō | pēnsīs |
| Vocative | pēnsum | pēnsa |

#### Related terms

* pēnsō

#### Descendants

* → French: pensum
* → German: Pensum
* → Portuguese: Penso
* → Spanish: pienso (semi-learned)
* → Spanish: pénsum
Via Vulgar Latin *pēsum:
* → Albanian: peshë
* → Proto-Brythonic: *puɨs
** Breton: pouez
** Cornish: poys, Cornish: pos
** Middle Welsh: pwys
*** Welsh: pwys
* Asturian: pesu
* Catalan: pes
* Franco-Provençal: pêds
* French: poids
* Friulian: pês
* Galician: peso
* Italian: peso
* Ladin: peis
* Occitan: pes
* Portuguese: peso, Peso
* Romanian: păs
* Romansch: pais, paisa
* Sardinian: pesu, pessu
* Sicilian: pisu
* Spanish: peso
** → Bikol Central: piso
** → English: peso
** → Basque: pisu
** → Cebuano: piso
** → Tagalog: piso
** → Navajo: béeso (“money”)
* Venetian: pexo

### References

* “pensum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
* “pensum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
* pensum in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
* pensum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
* “pensum”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers

## Norwegian Bokmål
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin pēnsum.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /pɛnsʉm/, [ˈpʰɛnsʉm]

### Noun

pensum n (definite singular pensumet, indefinite plural pensa or pensumer, definite plural pensaene or pensuma or pensumene)
* syllabus, curriculum
* task, assignment
* examination requirements

### References

* “pensum” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
* “pensum” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

## Norwegian Nynorsk
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin pēnsum.

### Noun

pensum n (definite singular pensumet, indefinite plural pensum, definite plural pensuma)
* syllabus, curriculum
* task, assignment
* examination requirements

#### Inflection

Historical inflection of pensum
indefinite singular
definite singular
indefinite plural
definite plural
1920
pensum
pensumet
pensa
pensa
1981
pensa, pensum
pensa, pensuma [pensumi]
1982
pensa, pensaa [pensai], pensuma [pensumi]
2012 (current)
pensum
pensumet
pensum
pensuma
Forms in italics are currently considered non-standard. Forms in [brackets] were official, but considered second-tier. :

### References

* “pensum” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.