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

[dawntreader]

oooh! how about Penna Turnpike? (which means "almost" an actual road.)

heh. other than that, i'm stumped. all i can think of are words that begin with pen, but the "pen" part isn't exactly a prefix. pencil, penny, penalty, etc.

[javasaurus.livejournal.com]

LOL! that road isn't even nearly a road. It's hideous, and has been for years. You'd think all the construction they do would have results eventually? right?