i am not a copper man myself,but i have always use the word "cent".can you imagine saying...chain penny,half penny or large penny,etc...?
Well, in colonial coinage in colonial times, halfpenny was quite common for the name of British/Irish copper coins (or haypenny/halfpence). We still refer to Rosa Americana/Hibernia/Voce Populi as halfpennies, even though in some cases the weight of the coin suggests they traded at a higher value than 1/2 cent.
Remember a half penny equals one cent. A 1/2 cent would be a farthing. There was no such thing as a British Penny coin at the time and if there was it would have been a two cent piece. The equating of the US cent and a Penny was probably from tying it to the New York Money of Account where the New York penny was 1/90th of a dollar. No other colonial or state money of account came closer in value and since New York was the financial center of the country everyone was familiar with the New York Money of Account.
I always thought that English was of Germanic origin unlike the romance languages ie. Spanish, Italian, French. So, perhaps it came from Pfenning and our dollar came from Thaler. Where the word originated before that I am not educated on.
I hate the word, but there are situations where saying "cent" would not be clear enough, so I guess it is necessary.
Exactly right! See Ardatirion's post just above yours: O.E. pening, penig "penny," from P.Gmc. *panninggaz (cf. O.N. penningr, Swed. pänning, O.Fris. panning, M.Du. pennic, O.H.G. pfenning, Ger. Pfennig, dollar < Thaler. Thal or Tal is "valley" in German, like the English words dell and dale. The big silver coins came first from St. James Valley in Bohemia: Joachims Thal, usually written as one long word. (Also the word shares roots with tell, tale, and tally: a cut.) What is not given is the root meanings of those penny words. The root sense is "weight." Modern words like ponder and pensive share the same root sense: to weigh out an idea. I could go on at length... drachma comes from "handful." Money comes from the temple of "Juno Moneta" where the Romans established a "mint." (Same word). But the root sense there is warning: admonish; monster, etc. Because once upon a time, in the 200s BCE, some Celts or Gauls had penetrated Rome in the night, but, crossing the grounds of the Temple of Juno, they disturbed the geese. The noise woke the guards. So, the Romans then called that the temple of "Juno Moneta" Juno Who Warned Us. It is well known in cointalk that "pecuniary" comes from "pecu-" for both sheep or cow. Cows were the preferred medium among many peoples, including the Germanics whose word as "das Vieh" pronounced like our English "fee" appropriately enough. Yield, gold, and yellow, all point to grain and the color of grain. I could keep going...
"Origin: before 900; Middle English peni, Old English penig, pænig, pen ( n ) ing, pending, cognate with Old Frisian penning, panning, Old Saxon, Dutch penning, Old High German pfenning, phantinc, phenting ( German Pfennig ), Old Norse penningr (perhaps < OE); < West Germanic or Germanic *pandingaz, probably equivalent to *pand- pawn + *-ingaz -ing" http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/penny
