penny

English

Etymology

From Middle English penny, 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.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpɛni/

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

• (pin–pen merger) IPA^(key): /ˈpɪni/
• (In compounds like twopenny, dated) IPA^(key): /pəni/
• Rhymes: -ɛni
• Hyphenation: pen‧ny

Noun

penny (plural pennies or pence or (obsolete) pens)

1. (historical) In the United Kingdom and Ireland, 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.
   • 1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter I, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, →OCLC; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., , , →OCLC, page 0056:

     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.

   • 1950 March, H. A. Vallance, “On Foot Across the Forth Bridge”, in Railway Magazine, page 150:

     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.

2. In the United Kingdom, a unit of currency worth ¹⁄₁₀₀ of a pound sterling, or a copper coin worth this amount. Abbreviation: p.
3. (historical) In Ireland, a coin worth ¹⁄₁₀₀ of an Irish pound before the introduction of the euro. Abbreviation: p.
4. In the US and (formerly) Canada, a one-cent coin, worth ¹⁄₁₀₀ of a dollar. Abbreviation: ¢.
   • 2015 November 22, “Pennies”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 3, episode 35, John Oliver (actor), via HBO:

     Holy shit! A hundred and eleven pennies! At that point, that dog had more Lincoln in him than Mary Todd.

5. In various countries, a small-denomination copper or brass coin.
6. A unit of nail size, said to be either the cost per 100 nails, or the number of nails per penny. Abbreviation: d.
7. Money in general.

   to turn an honest penny

   • c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     What penny hath Rome borne, / What men provided, what munition sent?

Usage notes

The plural pence is only used as a unit of currency. The plural pennies is used for other cases, in particular when referring to multiple individual coins.

Compounds (twopence, threepence, fourpence and so on up to tenpence, but not eleven pence or any higher) should be read with the stress on the first syllable and a reduced /ə/ in pence. Thus /ˈtʌpəns/, /ˈθɹʌpəns/, /ˈfɔːpəns/ and so on.

Synonyms

• (¹⁄₂₄₀ of a pound sterling): old penny
• (¹⁄₁₀₀ of a pound sterling): new penny (old-fashioned)
• (one-cent coin or its value): cent

Derived terms

Descendants

Translations

See also

• pence § Descendants

Verb

penny (third-person singular simple present pennies, present participle pennying, simple past and past participle pennied)

1. (slang) To jam a door shut by inserting pennies between the doorframe and the door.

   Zach and Ben had only been at college for a week when their door was pennied by the girls down the hall.

2. (electronics) 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.
3. (Oxbridge slang) 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.

   You got pennied! Down it, fresher.

See also

• d (British penny)
• cent

Anagrams

• Pynne

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English penny.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɛ.ni/, /pe.ni/

Noun

penny m (plural pennys)

1. penny

Further reading

• “penny”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

English penny, from Middle English peny, from Old English penning, penniġ, from Proto-Germanic *panningaz. Doublet of penge, penning, and pfennig.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɛn.nɪ/

Noun

penny m (definite singular pennyen, indefinite plural pence or pennyer, definite plural pencene or pennyene)

1. a penny

References

• “penny” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “penny” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

English penny, from Middle English peny, from Old English penning, penniġ, from Proto-Germanic *panningaz. Doublet of penge, penning, and pfennig.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɛn.nɪ/

Noun

penny m (plural pennyen)

1. a penny

References

• “penny” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Portuguese

Noun

penny m (plural pennies)

1. Alternative spelling of péni

Romanian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English penny.

Noun

penny m (plural penny)

1. penny

Declension