Where does “pinchpenny” come from?
pinchpenny (English) comes from English pinch, from Middle English pinchen, from Old French pincer, from Vulgar Latin pincio, from Latin punctiō, from Latin -tiō, from Latin dissertātiō, from Latin dissertus — small stone, pebble; gravel, rubble.
pinchpenny (English): One who spends little money; one who is very...
Definitions
- One who spends little money; one who is very...
Ancestry of “pinchpenny”, step by step
pinchpenny traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via English pinch
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | pinch | To squeeze a small amount of a person's skin and... |
| 2 | Middle English | pinchen | — |
| 3 | Old French | pincer | to pinch |
| 4 | Vulgar Latin | pincio | to puncture, pinch; I puncture, prick, pierce,... |
| 5 | Latin | punctiō | puncture, pricking |
| 6 | Latin | -tiō | tion, -ation, -ing |
| 7 | Latin | dissertātiō | (spoken) dissertation, discourse, disquisition |
| 8 | Latin | dissertus | arranged, disposed; explained |
| 9 | Latin | disserere | second-person singular future passive indicative... |
| 10 | Latin | dis- | asunder, apart, in two; reversal, removal;... |
| 11 | Latin | calceus | shoe |
| 12 | Latin | calx | limestone; chalk; the finish line |
| 13 | Ancient Greek | χάλιξ | small stone, pebble; gravel, rubble |
via English penny
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | penny | In the United Kingdom and Ireland, a copper coin... |
| 2 | English | -y | Added to nouns and adjectives to form adjectives... |
| 3 | Middle English | -y | Designates an adjective, in many cases formed by... |
| 4 | Old English | -iġ | -y, -ic |
| 5 | Proto-West Germanic | -g | Forms adjectives from nouns and verbs with a... |
| 6 | Proto-Germanic | -gaz | -y |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | -ḱos | -y, -ic |