Penny: a small coin worth one cent.
In German class this morning, we learned the word for penny: Pfennig. Clearly related to English, my students and I went off to find out where this word came from.
In Middle English, the word was peni. In Old English, pening, and In Anglo-Saxon pending. Beyond that, not much is known about the word.
Ironically, according to CoinNews.net, in 2022, it cost the U.S. governed 2.72 cents to manufacture one penny. In other words, it not longer makes sense to give someone a penny for their their thoughts. 2.72 cents for your thoughts?
I did not grow up using pennies, since pennies are nonexistent on overseas military bases. Cost too much to ship them over, I suppose. Everything was simply rounded up to the nearest nickel, which incidentally costs 10.41 pennies to manufacture.
The name Penny is not related to the coin. Penny is a shortened version of the Greek name Penelope. You may remember Penelope as the famous wife of Odysseus.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Almost every Saturday, I send out a Tip of the Week. The tip of the week is usually something I have picked up along the way that may make your life a little easier. If you would like to hear from me (almost) every Saturday, just go to the home page of my site and plug in your name and email. You will also get a free digital copy of my book on learning Latin (and almost anything else). Just go here: https://dwanethomas.com/
If you want to buy the digital book instead (because you just feel like buying me a cup of coffee) go here: https://dwanethomas.gumroad.com/l/fzixlh
If you are interested in learning Latin, you can go through the classes on my site 24/7. I recommend the book Lingua Latina by Hans Ørberg. If you tackle the book and find yourself bogged down, you may find the classes on my site helpful. To join, just click here: https://dwanethomas.com/join/
If you want a more professionally filmed experience, check out the best-selling DVD series: Visual Latin.
Or, if you want to skip Latin, and just jump right into learning English words from Latin and Greek roots, you may enjoy the series Word Up! Warning. Word Up! is a bit wacky. You will learn a lot… but, you may find yourself rolling your eyes, too.
I teach other languages on my site, too. The current schedule is here: https://dwanethomas.com/live-classes/
By the way, some of the links in this post are affiliate links. Not trying to pull a fast one on you. I only promote what I believe in.
