penn-

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Type:	lexical
Meaning:	'head'
Language:	Celtic
Phonemic analysis:	/penn/-
Attestation:	penini, poenino, poininos, poinunei

Commentary

Lexically in OIr. cenn, OW penn, OBret. penn, OCorn. pen gl. capud, and in Gaulish in RIG L-136 pennon, all 'head', < PC *k^u̯ennom, which does not have a PIE etymology. Also in glosses pennum gl. acutum, pen(n)is gl. caput, and continued in French arpent 'yoke' < arepennis (in Columella, De re rustica 5.1.6) and Dauphin. talapent 'gable'). OIr. conn 'chief' may also belong here. The word is attested as an onomastic element in personal names, e.g. Ogam cunacenni, Gaul. cunopennus (lit. 'dog-head'), RIG M-221 πεννουινδος, M-220 pennili, M-262 maupennos, and various names in penn-, in toponyms ('head' → 'top, summit'), e.g. pennelocos, pennocrucium (It.Ant.) > Penkridge, apenninus (Sims-Williams 2006: 98), and in the theonym *penninos. See LEIA: C-66, DLG: 249, 53, Matasović 2009: 177.

Corinna Salomon

Bibliography

CIL	Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. (17 volumes, various supplements)
DLG	Xavier Delamarre, Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise. Une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental, 2nd, revised edition, Paris: Errance 2003.