pen-

[javasaurus]

I was listening to an audiotape this morning that made a comment about the word "insulate" -- noting that it means, literally, to make an island. The Latin, insula, means island. This led me to think about the word insular, and then peninsula (pen = almost, insula = island), which led me to think about the prefix, pen-, meaning "almost." I love the word penultimate, because for the longest time I thought it meant "even more ultimate, beyond the best" but of course, that's wrong, it means "almost the ultimate" or "second best" or "next to last."

Other than peninsula and penultimate, can you think of any other words with the prefix "pen-"?

Trivia question: what animal is called a "pen"?

and yes, it's cheating to use a dictionary!

Comments

[skimbells.livejournal.com]

cool :-)

the only animal i could think of would be a pea-hen, but i don't think that's what you're getting at.... hmmmmmmm

[javasaurus.livejournal.com]

very close! it's a female swan. I have to wonder if we call the writing implements "pens" because maybe the nicer quills came from swan feathers?