halfpenny
noun
- Irish pre-decimal coin
- Australian pre-decimal coin
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈhɑːfˌpɛni/ / /ˈheɪp(ə)ni/ / /ˌhɑːfˈpɛni/ / /ˌhæfˈpɛni/
name
Etymology: From halfpenny, a nickname for a tenant.
- A surname transferred from the nickname.
noun
Etymology: From Middle English halpeni, halfpeni (“English coin worth half a penny; coin used in biblical times; small foreign coin”), and then either: * from half (“half”) (from Old English healf; ultimate etymology unknown, possible from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (“to incline”) or *(s)kelH- (“to cut; to separate, split”)) + peni, penni (“English coin; coin used in biblical times; foreign coin; (especially in the plural) cash, money; pennyweight”) (from Old English penning, from Proto-Germanic *panningaz (“coin, penny”); further etymology uncertain); or * from Late Old English halpene, halpenige (which can also be construed as early Middle English), from healf + penning (see above). By surface analysis, half + penny.
- Senses chiefly with the plural form halfpennies.
“There vvere none principal, they vvere all like one another, as halfe pence are, euerie one fault ſeeming monſtrous, til his fellovv-fault came to match it.”
“[T]here are Thouſands vvho vvould not have contributed a ſingle Halfpenny, as indeed he did not in Effect, for he made no Tender of any thing; and therefore as the others thought proer to make no Demand, he kept his Money in his Pocket.”
- Senses chiefly with the plural form halfpennies.
- Senses chiefly with the plural form halfpence.
“There ſhall be in England, ſeuen halfe peny Loaues ſold for a peny: the three hoop'd pot, ſhall haue ten hoopes, and I vvill make it Fellony to drink ſmall Beere.”
“My earlieſt vviſh vvas to eſcape unheeded through life; but I have been ſet up for half-pence, to fret and ſcamper at the end of my chain.”
- Senses chiefly with the plural form halfpence.
- A postage stamp worth half of one penny.
- A usually semicircular earmark made in the ear of a livestock animal.
- A small piece; a fragment.
“O ſhe tore the letter into a thouſand halfpence, raild at her ſelf, that ſhe ſhould be ſo immodeſt to vvrite, to one that ſhe knevv vvould flout her, […]”