Etymology Explorer › English

Where does “pennies” come from?

Pennies comes from Middle English peni, from Old English penning, from Proto-Germanic panningaz, a coin or monetary unit of ancient Germanic peoples.

pennies (English): plural of penny; An unspecified, but very small...

Definitions

  1. plural of penny; An unspecified, but very small...

Ancestry of “pennies”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1EnglishpennyIn the United Kingdom and Ireland, a copper coin...
2English-yAdded to nouns and adjectives to form adjectives...
3Middle English-yDesignates an adjective, in many cases formed by...
4Old English-iġ-y, -ic
5Proto-West Germanic-gForms adjectives from nouns and verbs with a...
6Proto-Germanic-gaz-y
7Proto-Indo-European-ḱos-y, -ic
Every word from Proto-Indo-European -ḱos →