Penny

Here’s a word for you - Penny. I’ve picked it out randomly after digging through the dictionary.

Penny (noun)

A monetary unit

A current British coin and also a former British coin

A one-cent coin

A girl’s name shortened from Penelope

What comes to mind?

A bad penny. Penny-pincher. A penny for your thoughts. Spend a penny. The penny dropped. Penny sweets. In for a penny, in for a pound…I could go on.

I hadn’t considered that there were so many phrases and idioms using the word penny before.

Another dictionary dive. This time I discover “Penny-a-liner”, someone who sells their wordy wares at a one pence-per-line rate to the press. 

I go in search for a penny.

Like the phrase penny-a-liner, pennies lie around out of use. I find one amongst my keys in the pot in the hallway. There’ll be a few more pence in my purse or some sewn into curtain linings.  I can’t remember the last time I used a pence piece for anything other than unscrewing the side of my keyboard to replace the batteries.

Where might this word take you?

Pick one of the penny phrases from the list above, or another one that has come to mind. Write it down and then write down what that phrase actually means.

What comes up for you when you start to translate its literal meaning?

Are you reminded of any particular place or time?

Is there a person you think of through association with the phrase?

As always, we’d love to see what you come up with, if you’d like to share. And if you’d like to share it in our weekly Note and Journal, please send it to me.