Re: Types of numerals
| From: | caeruleancentaur <caeruleancentaur@...> |
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| Date: | Thursday, January 5, 2006, 4:25 |
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--- 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.