"P" Word Origins

penishead

Origin

From penis + head.

penitence

Latin

From Old French penitence, from Latin paenitentia, "repentance" — from paenitēre, "to regret."

penitent

Latin

From Old French penitent, from Latin paenitēns, present participle of paenitēre, "to repent."

penitential

Origin

From Medieval Latin paenitentiālis, from Latin paenitentia (“repentance”). Attested since the 16th century.

penitentiary

Medieval Latin

From Medieval Latin pēnitentiārius, "place of penitence" — the word was adopted by Quakers in colonial Pennsylvania to describe a place where offenders could reflect on their wrongdoing.

penknife

Origin

From pen + knife — originally a small knife used to sharpen (cut a "nib" into) quill pens.

penman

Origin

From pen + -man.

penmanship

Origin

From pen + the suffix -manship (as in "craftsmanship"), meaning skill in a particular activity.

Penn

Origin

* As an English surname, named after various places such as Penn in Buckinghamshire or Staffordshire, of Brythonic origin, from Proto-Brythonic *penn (“(hill) top, head”). * Also as an English surname, from the noun pen (“enclosure”). * Also as an English surname, spelling variant of Parnell. * As a German surname, from Sorbian pien (“tree stump”), from Proto-Slavic *pьňь.

pennant

Latin

From Old French penon, ultimately from Latin penna ("feather"), related to "pinion."

penner

Origin

Formed from "pen" plus the agent suffix "-er".

penniless

Middle English

From Middle English penyles — penny + -less.

pennon

Origin

From Late Middle English pennon, penoun (“long narrow flag attached to a lance or used in other contexts; one who bears a pennon, knight bachelor; plume of feathers; strip around the edge of a shield”), from Anglo-Norman penun (“feather of an arrow”), penoun (“flag attached to a lance”), Middle French pennon, penoun, and Old French penon (“flag attached to a lance”) (modern French pennon), from penne (“feather; wing”) + -on (diminutive suffix). Penne is inherited from Latin penna (“feather (especially a flight feather), pinion; wing”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *peth₂- (“to spread out; to fly (in the sense of spreading out wings)”).

Pennsylvania

Latin

From "Penn" plus Latin "sylvania" ("woodlands"), meaning "Penn's woods", named by King Charles II in honor of William Penn's father.

penny

Old English

From Old English peniġ/penning, of uncertain deeper origin; a doublet of the German pfennig.

pennyroyal

Origin

Apparently an alteration (after penny) of Anglo-Norman puliol royal, from Latin pūlegium.

Penrose

Origin

From Cornish penn (“head”) + ros (“moor, heathland”).

Pensacola

Origin

From Choctaw words meaning roughly "long-haired people," combining a term for hair with a term for people.

pension

Latin

From Latin pēnsiō ("payment, rent"), from pendō ("to weigh, pay").

pensionary

Origin

From pension + -ary.

pensioner

Origin

From pension + -er.

pensive

Latin

From Old French pensif, "thoughtful," from penser, "to think" (from Latin pēnsāre).

penstock

Origin

Perhaps from pen (“an enclosure”) + stock.

pent

Origin

From "pen" (to enclose) plus the old past-tense ending "-t", the same pattern seen in words like "bent" from "bend".

pentacle

Origin

PIE word *pénkʷe From Middle French pentacle, from Old French pentacol (“pendant”), from pent (“hangs”), a (“from”), and col (“neck”), thus "hangs from neck". Likely reanalyzed in medieval times as coming from penta- (“five”) and -culum (object forming suffix), as evidenced by the Latinized form pentaculum and the narrowing of the modern sense to a five-pointed design, especially a pentagram.

pentad

Origin

From Ancient Greek πεντάς (pentás), from πέντε (pénte, “five”) + -άς (-ás, “-ad”). By surface analysis, pent- + -ad.

pentagon

Greek

From Greek pentágōnon, from pénte ("five") + gōnía ("angle").

pentagram

Greek

From Greek pentágrammon, "five lines" — penta- + gram ("letter/line").

pentaplex

Origin

From penta- + -plex.

pentathlon

Origin

Borrowed from Ancient Greek πένταθλον (péntathlon), from πέντε (pénte, “five”) + ἆθλον (âthlon, “contest”). By surface analysis, penta- + -athlon.

pentation

Origin

From penta- + (itera)tion. The word was coined by the English mathematician Reuben Goodstein (1912–1985).

Pentecostal

Greek

From Pentecost, via Latin from Greek pentēkostē (hēmera) 'fiftieth (day)', the festival falling fifty days after Passover or Easter.

penthouse

Anglo-Norman

From Anglo-Norman pentiz, altered over time (by folk etymology) to resemble "house" — originally referred to a lean-to shed attached to a wall.

pentothal

Origin

A trademarked brand name for the drug thiopental.

penurious

Origin

From Medieval Latin pēnūriōsus. See penury from Latin penuria (“want”), related to paene (“scarcely”), c. 1400. Compare French pénurie.

penury

Origin

From Late Middle English penuri, penurie (“destitution, need, poverty; dearth, lack, scarcity”), borrowed from Latin pēnūria (“need, scarcity, want”) + Middle English -i, -ie (suffix forming abstract and collective nouns); further etymology uncertain, possibly related to paene (“almost, nearly; barely, hardly, scarcely”, adverb), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *peh₁- (“to hate; to hurt”).

penwomanship

Origin

From penwoman + -ship.

peon

Late Latin

From Spanish peón and French peon, both from Late Latin pedōnem, "pedestrian, foot soldier" — a doublet of "pawn."

peony

Latin

From Latin paeōnia, from Greek Paiṓn, the physician of the gods in mythology.

people

Latin

From Old French pueple, from Latin populus ("a people, nation") — related to "populate" and "pueblo."

Peoria

Origin

From a Miami word meaning roughly "one who carries a pack on his back."

pep

Origin

A shortening of "pepper," used figuratively for spirit or zest.

Pepe

Origin

Named after the character Pepe the Frog, created by cartoonist Matt Furie, who picked the name "Pepe" because it echoed the word "pee-pee" and struck him as funny.

pepita

Spanish

Borrowed from Spanish "pepita", meaning seed or pip.

pepito

Spanish

From Spanish, a diminutive form related to "pepita".

pepper

Latin

From Old English piper, from Latin piper, ultimately borrowed from an ancient Indian language (compare Sanskrit pippali, "long pepper").

peppercorn

Origin

Inherited from Middle English peper corn, peper-corn, pepercorn, from Old English piporcorn (“peppercorn”), corresponding to pepper + corn. Compare Dutch peperkorrel (“peppercorn”), German Pfefferkorn (“peppercorn”), Danish peberkorn (“peppercorn”), Swedish pepparkorn (“peppercorn”), Icelandic piparkorn (“peppercorn”).

pepperiness

Origin

From peppery + -ness.