penny
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: business
electrical-engineering
electricity
electromagnetism
electronics
energy
engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
physics
Etymology: Etymology tree
Pre-Greekder.?
Ancient Greek πατάνη (patánē)bor.
Latin patina
Latin panna?
Latin pannus?
Proto-Indo-European *-n̥kʷo-der.?
Proto-Indo-European *-nós
Proto-Indo-European *-iHnos
Proto-Germanic *-īnaz
Proto-Indo-European *-kos
Proto-Germanic *-gaz
?
Proto-Germanic *-ingaz
Proto-Germanic *panningaz
Proto-West Germanic *panning
Old English peniġ
Middle English peny
English penny
From Middle English peny, from Old English peniġ, penniġ, penning (“penny”), from Proto-West Germanic *panning, from Proto-Germanic *panningaz, of uncertain origin (see that page for theories). Doublet of pfennig and fening.
Inflected forms:
form: pennies
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: pence
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: pens
pos: noun
tags: obsolete
plural
form: peny
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: penie
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: pennie
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: pennies
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: pennying
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: pennied
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: pennied
pos: verb
tags: past
form: peny
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: penie
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: pennie
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
Senses:
gloss: In the United Kingdom and Ireland and many other countries, a unit of currency worth ¹⁄₂₄₀ of a pound sterling or Irish pound before decimalisation, or a copper coin worth this amount. Abbreviation: d.
pos: noun
tags: historical
examples: Thanks to that penny he had just spent so recklessly [on a newspaper] he would pass a happy hour, taken, for once, out of his anxious, despondent, miserable self. It irritated him shrewdly to know that these moments of respite from carking care would not be shared with his poor wife, with careworn, troubled Ellen.
We had not proceeded very far across the south cantilever when we saw a penny lying beside the track, and another a short distance further on. We were to find several more pennies, and some half-pennies, before we reached the north shore. Inspector Bell explained that many passengers try to throw a coin into the Forth, for "good luck," while trains are crossing the bridge.
However he lost out, as other business interests whom he had alienated by his efforts to squeeze every penny of profit from the canal, supported the construction of the railway.
gloss: In the United Kingdom, a unit of currency worth ¹⁄₁₀₀ of a pound sterling, or a copper coin worth this amount. Abbreviation: p.
pos: noun
gloss: In Ireland, a coin worth ¹⁄₁₀₀ of an Irish pound before the introduction of the euro. Abbreviation: p.
pos: noun
tags: historical
gloss: In the US and (formerly) Canada, a one-cent coin, worth ¹⁄₁₀₀ of a dollar. Abbreviation: ¢.
pos: noun
examples: Holy shit! A hundred and eleven pennies! At that point, that dog had more Lincoln in him than Mary Todd.
A Treasury spokesperson said the government made its final order of penny blanks this month, and the United States Mint will continue to manufacture pennies only as long as an inventory of penny blanks exists.
gloss: In various countries, a small-denomination copper or brass coin.
pos: noun
gloss: A unit of nail size, said to be either the cost per 100 nails, or the number of nails per penny. Abbreviation: d.
pos: noun
gloss: Money in general.
pos: noun
examples: to turn an honest penny
What penny hath Rome borne, / What men provided, what munition sent?
gloss: To jam a door shut by inserting pennies between the doorframe and the door.
pos: verb
tags: slang
examples: Zach and Ben had only been at college for a week when their door was pennied by the girls down the hall.
gloss: To circumvent the tripping of an electrical circuit breaker by the dangerous practice of inserting a coin in place of a fuse in a fuse socket.
pos: verb
gloss: During a meal or as part of a drinking game, to drop a penny in a person's drink with the expectation that they finish it (or some such variation thereof); commonly associated with crewdates at Oxford and swaps at Cambridge.
pos: verb
examples: You got pennied! Down it, fresher.
Synonyms: old penny
1⁄100 of a pound sterling
Related words: pence § Descendants
d
cent
Derived words: a bad penny always comes back
a bad penny always turns up
a penny saved is a penny earned
a penny saved is a penny gained
a pound to a penny
bad penny
bright as a new penny
catchpenny
clean as a new penny
dead man's penny
death penny
eighteenpenny
eightpenny
eightpenny nail
eight penny nail
eight-penny nail
elevenpenny
fair penny
fifteenpenny
fine penny
fivepenny
fortypenny
fourpenny
four penny nail
fourpenny nail
four-penny nail
fourteenpenny
get-penny
God's penny
hearth-penny
in for a penny, in for a pound
jam penny
Kissi penny
lickpenny
luck penny
megapenny
ninepenny
pence
penniless
penny-a-line
penny-a-liner
penny-ante
penny ante
penny arcade
penny auction
penny bank
Penny Black
penny bun
penny candy
penny chew
pennycress
penny dog
penny dreadful
penny-dreadfulish
penny-dreadfulism
penny fall
penny-farthing
penny farthing
penny-father
penny for one's thoughts
penny for them
penny for your thoughts
penny gaffe
penny gaff
penny-gaff
penny grass
penny-grass
penny in the fusebox
penny-in-the-slot machine
pennyland
penny loafer
penny mail
penny packet
penny-pig
penny-pinch
penny-pincher
penny pincher
penny-pinching
penny post
penny pusher
penny SKU
penny sleeve
penny slot
penny starver
penny sterling
penny stock
penny sweet
penny tray
penny university
penny-wedding
penny wedding
penny weed
pennyweight
penny whip
pennywhistle
penny whistle
penny wisdom
penny-wise
pennywise
penny-wise and pound-foolish
penny wise and pound foolish
pennywort
pennyworth
Peter's penny
pickpenny
pinchpenny
pitchpenny
pretty penny
push-penny
red penny
Rome-penny
scrape-penny
sevenpenny
sixpenny
sixpenny nail
six penny nail
six-penny nail
sixteenpenny
sixteen penny nail
sixteen-penny nail
spear penny
spear-penny
spend a penny
swarf-penny
ten a penny
tenpenny
ten penny nail
tenpenny nail
ten-penny nail
the bad penny always comes back
the bad penny always turns up
the penny drops
third penny
thirteenpenny
thirtypenny
threepenny
tin penny
toffee penny
true-penny
turn an honest penny
twalpenny
twelvepenny
twelve-penny nail
twelve penny nail
twentypenny
two a penny
two ha'pennies for a penny
twopenny
watch the pennies
water penny
wheat penny
widow's penny
worth every penny
Translations: