Reconstruction:Latin/ad poenam

This Latin entry contains reconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence.

Latin

Etymology

From ad (literally “to”) +‎ poenam ("pain, suffering" → "difficulty"). Possibly influenced or inspired by Latin paene (“almost, barely”).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /apˈpena/

Adverb

*ad poenam (Proto-Italo-Western-Romance)

barely, hardly

Reconstruction notes

The addition of an adverbial /-s/ can be observed in Iberia and environs. Some descendants have taken on temporal senses, possibly via a semantic pathway such as "barely" → "only just".

Descendants

Italo-Romance:
- Italian: appena
North Italian:
- Venetian: pena
Gallo-Romance:
- Catalan: a penes
- Occitan: a pena, a penas
- Old French: a paine, a peine
  - French: à peine
Ibero-Romance:
- Asturian: apenes
- Portuguese: apenas
- Spanish: apenas