Re: [tied] RE:Re: Etymology for Pfennig

At 4:14:31 PM on Monday, December 8, 2003, S & L wrote:

> Thank You Brian for the Cleasby tip!

> You are right, the Scandinavians "took" [I do not know yet
> if borrowed OR inherited but I do not think that in this
> case this is important] their word from Old English PENIG,
> PENING; related to Old Saxon PENNI(N)G where the word is
> "taken" from Old Frisian [PANNING], where the word is
> "taken" probably from OLG [PENNING].

> Cleasby [Richard & Gudbrand Vigfusson, in "An
> Icelandic-English Dictionary", 1874] gives the etymology
> for PENNINGR as "... from Latin PECUNIA . it is probably
> one of the earliest borrowed Gr.-Lat. words in Scandin.
> language". Unfortunately for me, I cannot figured out why
> from PECUNIA and not from Latin PENA [archaic poena]?

You shouldn't trust the etymologies in Cleasby too far. I
suspect that this one is simply wrong, as is the one from
<pena>. The various early forms suggest a source with /a/,
which suits the etymology offered in Wahrig (from Latin
<pannus>).

Brian