penny means 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. It carries an Arena rating of 1476, earned across 6 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, penny ranks #5,570 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #5,900 of 17,127 for Most Vivid Words, #10,427 of 17,126 for Most Satisfying to Say, #11,706 of 17,104 for Most Storied Words.
penny is pronounced /ˈpɛni/.
Why “penny” is a great word
A unit of currency, historically a small copper coin, originally representing ¹⁄₂₄₀ of a pound sterling and now representing ¹⁄₁₀₀ of a pound. From Middle English *peni*, from Old English *penning*, *penig*, from Proto-Germanic *panninga-*. Unlike the clinical "cent"—a clean decimal division of a dollar—or the quaint, obsolete "farthing" (a quarter of its former self), the penny endures as the stubborn, persistent artifact of small change. It is the dull, warm weight in a child’s pocket, the tarnished disk tossed into a wishing well, the copper ghost haunting the phrase "a penny for your thoughts"—a testament to how value clings to a form long after the form itself has been debased, a coin so small it measures poverty as often as it enables purchase, yet large enough in memory to clink through the corridors of time.
Etymology
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.
noun
- 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.
- In the United Kingdom, a unit of currency worth ¹⁄₁₀₀ of a pound sterling, or a copper coin worth this amount. Abbreviation: p.
- In Ireland, a coin worth ¹⁄₁₀₀ of an Irish pound before the introduction of the euro. Abbreviation: p.
- In the US and (formerly) Canada, a one-cent coin, worth ¹⁄₁₀₀ of a dollar. Abbreviation: ¢.e.g.“Holy shit! A hundred and eleven pennies! At that point, that dog had more Lincoln in him than Mary Todd.” — 2015 November 22, “Pennies”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 3, episode 35, John Oliver (actor), via HBO:
- In various countries, a small-denomination copper or brass coin.
- A unit of nail size, said to be either the cost per 100 nails, or the number of nails per penny. Abbreviation: d.
- Money in general.e.g.“to turn an honest penny”
verb
- To jam a door shut by inserting pennies between the doorframe and the door.e.g.“Zach and Ben had only been at college for a week when their door was pennied by the girls down the hall.”
- 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.
- 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.e.g.“You got pennied! Down it, fresher.”
name
- A diminutive of the female given name Penelope.
- A surname.e.g.“Max Cross cut a fine figure as the Colonel, Percy Penny was a somewhat unducal Duke, while Edgar McHale gave a particularly good rendering of the Major.” — 1922, Musical News and Herald, volumes 62-63, page 780:
- A place name, presumably all taken from the surname:; An unincorporated community in Calloway County, Kentucky, United States.
- A place name, presumably all taken from the surname:; An unincorporated community in Pike County, Kentucky.
- A place name, presumably all taken from the surname:; A small community on the Fraser River in central British Columbia, Canada.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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