Talk:pen-

RFV discussion: January–February 2018

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pen-

None of the supposed derived terms (peninsula, penultimate, penumbra, peneplain) actually are. Any words that are actually formed with this prefix? DTLHS (talk) 02:02, 7 January 2018 (UTC)

Nope. Delete that shit. (But: "By Tre Pol and Pen / Shall ye know all Cornishmen.") Equinox ◑ 02:21, 7 January 2018 (UTC)

If you delete this, remember to take out pene- as well. Kiwima (talk) 02:52, 7 January 2018 (UTC)

What about penannular? Can anyone find a Latin predecessor? DCDuring (talk) 13:43, 7 January 2018 (UTC)

I'd be surprised. I don't find any evidence of a New Latin *paenannulāris on GB. Still, if penannular is the only word really using pen-, I don't think that entry is needed. --Per utramque cavernam (talk) 21:00, 24 January 2018 (UTC)

pen-tailed treeshrew and pen-tail John Cross (talk) 06:40, 6 February 2018 (UTC)

Those are hyphenated compounds, with the first part being the word pen, not a prefix. Unless we're talking about an "almost-tailed" treeshrew, those have nothing to do with the challenged prefix (the same goes for unhyphenated penknife and penlight).

In all of the examples given, the actual morpheme is Latin paene (“almost”), which went into Latin compounds that were borrowed whole into English. It wasn't used as a prefix in English to add the meaning of "almost" to another word. Chuck Entz (talk) 14:59, 6 February 2018 (UTC)

penannular and peneplain don't exist in Latin. There's a New Latin paeneplanus but it's 1) more recent than the English term (coined in 1889?) 2) about something else (a taxonomic name?) 3) not the right gender. penultimate can't be directly borrowed from Latin paenultimus, the suffix isn't right (although the solution is almost certainly not pen- + ultimate). --Per utramque cavernam (talk) 15:14, 6 February 2018 (UTC)

• RFV failed. —Μετάknowledge^{discuss/deeds} 03:39, 22 February 2018 (UTC)

Are we really ready to fail this? We have two words, penannular and peneplain. We only need a third. Kiwima (talk) 04:12, 22 February 2018 (UTC)

The second one is for the main form, pene-. The entry claimed that this form is used before a vowel, but the only other examples with a vowel I can find are nonces like peneomnipotent, which break that rule and use the main form. —Μετάknowledge^{discuss/deeds} 05:52, 22 February 2018 (UTC)