pennyworth
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Noun
[edit]pennyworth (plural pennyworths)
- The amount that can be bought for a penny.
- Coordinate terms: halfpennyworth, tuppence worth
- 1832, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Heath's Book of Beauty, 1833, The Knife, page 127:
- She was learned in decocting all kinds of herb-tea, infallible in curing burns, sprains, and scalds ; and not a few pennyworths of gingerbread and paradise (for the latter she was very famous) went among her young customers, for which the till was never the richer.
- A small quantity or value.
- Synonyms: halfpennyworth, tuppence worth; see also Thesaurus:modicum
- c. 1591–1595 (date written), [William Shakespeare], […] Romeo and Iuliet. […] (Second Quarto), London: […] Thomas Creede, for Cuthbert Burby, […], published 1599, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene v]:
- VVhy Lambe, vvhy Lady, fie you ſluggabed, / VVhy Loue I ſay, Madam, ſvveeteheart, vvhy Bride: / VVhat not a vvord, you take your pennivvorths novv, / Sleepe for a vveeke, […]
- (dated) A good bargain.
- 1712, Humphry Polesworth [pseudonym; John Arbuthnot], “The Discourse that Pass’d between Nic. Frog and Esquire South, which John Bull Overheard”, in Lewis Baboon Turned Honest, and John Bull Politician. Being the Fourth Part of Law is a Bottomless-Pit. […], London: […] John Morphew, […], →OCLC, page 30:
- VVilt thou purchaſe it Nic.? thou ſhalt have a lumping Pennyvvorth; nay, rather than vve ſhould differ, I'll give thee ſomething to take it off my Hands.