Language change
For this task, I am going to be looking into the word
‘penny’ and the history of this word. The word penny is used to define a
British bronze coin and monetary unit which is equal to a hundredth of a pound.
It is also known as a small sum of money used in sentences such as ‘we didn’t
get paid a penny’. It is believed that
the word originated from the Old English word for ‘pawn’ as in the sense of a
token. The word penny can be traced back
to Old English being penig, pening, penning and pending. Penny is such a close
word to penig in particular, which shows similarities between the use of the
word then and now. In German, the word for penny is pfennig, which is closely
linked to the Old English term and the term we use today. Offa, an Anglo-Saxon king is said to have
introduced the coin known as the penny around 790 AD, made entirely of silver. The
Anglo-Saxons are thought to have invaded Britain starting in 450 AD, coming
from German which could be the cause for the close link in the German and
English word for penny.
https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=money&year_start=1500&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cmoney%3B%2Cc0
Above, I have used Google’s NGram to look at the use of the
word over 500 years. Unfortunately, this can only be traced back to the 1500’s,
which does not help with working out the origin of the word in comparison to
the citizens of the UK at each time. As you can see, the usage of the word
fluctuates hugely between the mid 1550’s and 1650, peaking in the 1620’s. In
the late 1750’s the word use begins to rise again, leading to more subtle
fluctuations up until 2000.
There are various idioms which use the word penny. Below, I
am going to discuss some:
‘Bad penny’ this phrase is used to describe a worthless
person. This could be because in today’s society, a penny is not worth a lot
and cannot be used to buy much, meaning it is almost worthless on its own,
which is used to describe a person.
‘A penny for your thoughts’ This
English idiom is used when asking people to volunteer their opinions on an
issue that is being discussed. When this
saying originated, a penny was worth a lot more than it is today. Therefore, a
penny for your thoughts likely indicated that thoughts were valuable. This
saying can also be said in a sarcastic tone, which indicates that someone’s
idea is bad or worth only a penny in modern value.
‘Not have two pennies to rub together’ This is a more modern
saying than ‘a penny for your thoughts’, as the value of a penny has decreased
significantly in modern times. When the word is used in this context, it is to
describe being very poor as pennies are seen as worthless.
‘Spend a penny’ is a phrase used to describe using a public
lavatory. The origin of the word is the use of coin operated locks on public
toilets, meaning people had to pay to use public toilets. This was used mostly
for women’s lavatories in the UK in the 1900’s, as men’s urinals were free of
charge. This saying is not as common as previously, as the charges have changes
and it was always a coy euphemism which now seems rather dated.
Slang terms
Cash
Dosh
Dough
The word penny today it can be argued it not used as much as previous used. This can be seen with money as it commonly not said 10 penny but rather 10p.
ReplyDeleteGood history background on the word penny.