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Re: Types of numerals

From:caeruleancentaur <caeruleancentaur@...>
Date:Thursday, January 5, 2006, 4:25
--- In conlang@yahoogroups.com, "Mark J. Reed" <markjreed@M...> wrote:

>Hm. Is there an etymological relationship beween "penny" and >"denarius", or was it just a case of using Latin because That's What >Was Done?
AHD: penny < OE penig, penning < WGer panninga (unattested) probably < Lat. pannus, a cloth (pieces of cloth were in barbarian Europe used as a medium of exchange). Eng. cognates: vane, fanon, pane, panel, pawn, panicle. "An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English" by Ernest Weekley: Origin obscure, perhaps from _pan_, early coins being sometimes shaped like shallow pans. Personally I prefer the AHD etymology! Lat. denarius = consisting of ten. The standard etymology from PIE dekm.