pensum
English
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin pensum. Doublet of peso.
Noun
pensum (plural pensums)
- (dated) A task or imposition set as a school punishment.
- 1955, Samuel Beckett, Patrick Bowles (translator), 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)
- syllabus, curriculum
- task, assignment
- examination requirements
Inflection
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)
- (archaic) pensum (at school); lines (UK)
- 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]
- (Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ˈpen.sum/, [ˈpɛnsum]
Noun
pēnsum n (genitive pēnsī); second declension
- 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.
- lūmen ad exiguum famulae data pēnsa trahēbant
- work quota, a day’s work
- 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
- → 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
- → French: pensum
- Friulian: pês
- Galician: peso
- → German: Pensum
- Italian: peso
- Ladin: peis
- Occitan: pes
- Portuguese: peso
- Romanian: păs
- Romansch: pais, paisa
- Sardinian: pesu, pessu
- Sicilian: pisu
- Spanish: peso
- → Bikol Central: piso
- → English: peso
- → Basque: pisu
- → Cebuano: piso
- → Tagalog: piso
- → Spanish: pienso (semi-learned)
- 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)
- syllabus, curriculum
- task, assignment
- 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)
- syllabus, curriculum
- task, assignment
- examination requirements
Inflection
Historical inflection of pensum
Forms in italics are currently considered non-standard. Forms in [brackets] were official, but considered second-tier. |
References
- “pensum” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.