pensum

See also: pénsum and Pensum

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin pensum. Doublet of peso.

Noun

pensum (plural pensums)

1. (dated) A task or imposition set as a school punishment.
   • 1955, Samuel Beckett, translated by Patrick Bowles, Molloy:

     You invent nothing, you think you are inventing, you think you are escaping, and all you do is stammer out your lesson, the remnants of a pensum one day got by heart and long forgotten, life without tears, as it wept.

Danish

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin pēnsum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɛnsɔm/, [ˈpʰɛnsɔm]

Noun

pensum n (singular definite pensummet, plural indefinite pensa)

1. syllabus, curriculum
2. task, assignment
3. examination requirements

Inflection

Declension of pensum

neuter gender	Singular		Plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	pensum	pensummet	pensa	pensaene
genitive	pensums	pensummets	pensas	pensaenes

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin pēnsum. Doublet of poids, which was inherited.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɛ̃.sɔm/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

pensum m (plural pensums)

1. (archaic) pensum (at school); lines (UK)
2. chore

Further reading

• “pensum”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Latin

Etymology

Neuter of past participle of pendō.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈpen.sum/, [ˈpẽːs̠ʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈpen.sum/, [ˈpɛnsum]

Noun

pēnsum n (genitive pēnsī); second declension

1. allotment, portion, weight (of wool measured out to a slave to spin in a day)
   • 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 2.743:

     lūmen ad exiguum famulae data pēnsa trahēbant

     By a dim light the handmaids were spinning their given allotments of wool.

2. work quota, a day’s work
3. task, job, duty, assignment, engagement

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	pēnsum	pēnsa
Genitive	pēnsī	pēnsōrum
Dative	pēnsō	pēnsīs
Accusative	pēnsum	pēnsa
Ablative	pēnsō	pēnsīs
Vocative	pēnsum	pēnsa

Related terms

• pēnsō

Descendants

• → French: pensum
• → German: Pensum
• → Portuguese: Penso
• → Spanish: pienso (semi-learned)
• → Spanish: pénsum

Via Vulgar Latin *pēsum:

• → Albanian: peshë
• → Proto-Brythonic: *puɨs
  • Breton: pouez
  • Cornish: poys, Cornish: pos
  • Middle Welsh: pwys
    • Welsh: pwys
• Asturian: pesu
• Catalan: pes
• Franco-Provençal: pêds
• French: poids
• Friulian: pês
• Galician: peso
• Italian: peso
• Ladin: peis
• Occitan: pes
• Portuguese: peso, Peso
• Romanian: păs
• Romansch: pais, paisa
• Sardinian: pesu, pessu
• Sicilian: pisu
• Spanish: peso
  • → Bikol Central: piso
  • → English: peso
  • → Basque: pisu
  • → Cebuano: piso
  • → Tagalog: piso
• Venetian: pexo

References

• “pensum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “pensum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• pensum in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• pensum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “pensum”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin pēnsum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɛnsʉm/, [ˈpʰɛnsʉm]

Noun

pensum n (definite singular pensumet, indefinite plural pensa or pensumer, definite plural pensaene or pensuma or pensumene)

1. syllabus, curriculum
2. task, assignment
3. examination requirements

References

• “pensum” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “pensum” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin pēnsum.

Noun

pensum n (definite singular pensumet, indefinite plural pensum, definite plural pensuma)

1. syllabus, curriculum
2. task, assignment
3. examination requirements

Inflection

Historical inflection of pensum indefinite singular definite singular indefinite plural definite plural 1920 pensum pensumet pensa pensa 1981 pensa, pensum pensa, pensuma [pensumi] 1982 pensa, pensaa [pensai], pensuma [pensumi] 2012 (current) pensum pensumet pensum pensuma Forms in italics are currently considered non-standard. Forms in [brackets] were official, but considered second-tier.

References

• “pensum” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.