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pena

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Etymology and origin of the Italian word pena

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1211, Florentine bankers' book
Inherited from
Latin poena
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek ποινή
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin poena
French peine
Italian pena
From the same root
Italian appena ← pena

Pronunciation

Forms

pena f (plural pene)[1] Old forms include penna and pina.[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin poena (“fine; punishment; suffering”), which Latin had taken from Ancient Greek ποινά (poiná, “compensation, price of blood; penalty”), the Doric form of ποινή (poinḗ).[3][4][5][1] The Greek word first meant the price paid as compensation for a crime, especially a killing, then expiation and punishment.[6][4] Nocentini traces it to Proto-Indo-European *kʷoinā (“price”), which is also found in Lithuanian káina (“price”) and Russian цена (cená, “price”), and Devoto to a root meaning “to pay”, found in Iranian, Slavic and Baltic.[4][7]

The word is panromance except in Romanian: French peine, Occitan pena, Catalan pena, Spanish pena and Portuguese pena.[4][8] Latin also lent it to Germanic, as Old High German pīna and German Pein, and to British Celtic, as Welsh poen.[8][9]

The phrase “valere la pena” “to be worth it” is a calque of French valoir la peine, recorded around 1590.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a Florentine bankers' book of 1211, in the legal sense of a penalty or fine.[3][5][10] The sense “suffering” is found in Giacomo da Lentini before 1250.[3]

Semantic evolution

In the 13th century the word already covered the whole range from legal punishment to pain: Bono Giamboni, before 1292, uses it for the punishment of the soul for its sins, Dante for toil and hardship, and Benvenuto da Imola in the 14th century for the distress and pity caused by the sufferings of others.[3] Its derivatives penare “to suffer” (before 1250), penoso (13th century) and the adverb appena, from a pena “with difficulty”, are just as old.[3][4]

The French model of valere la pena was condemned by 19th-century purists, and Tommaseo thought it proper only when the matter really costs some effort.[3] Penale “penal” is in Matteo Villani, before 1363, but diritto penale (1822) and penalista (1871) were also criticized.[3] German borrowed the legal word as Pene in 1470.[10]

Timeline

  • 1211 – A Florentine bankers' book uses pena for a penalty.[3]
  • Before 1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses it for suffering, and penare.[3]
  • Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses it for the punishment of the soul.[3]
  • Before 1321 – Dante uses it for toil.[3]
  • Before 1363 – Matteo Villani uses penale.[3]
  • 1470 – German Pene is recorded.[10]
  • c. 1590 – Valere la pena is recorded, after French.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (law) A penalty imposed by law on someone who has committed an offence: pena di morte, pena detentiva (imprisonment), scontare una pena.[5][11][6]
  2. (by extension) A punishment suffered for a fault.[5][6]
  3. (religion) The punishment of the soul after death for its sins: le pene dell'inferno.[5][11][6]
  4. suffering, physical or mental: pene d'amore.[5][11][6]
  5. pity, compassion, fare pena, to arouse pity: Mi fa pena vederlo così solo.[5][11][6]
  6. worry, anxiety: Siamo stati in pena tutta la notte.[5][1]
  7. Trouble, effort: Non si è nemmeno preso la pena di rispondere.[6][1]

Word family

Usage notes

Valere la pena means “to be worth it” (non vale la pena di insistere).[3][1] A mala pena or a malapena means “hardly, barely”, and the adverb appena grew out of a pena.[5][4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 12, 981
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  4. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  7. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 323
  8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  9. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2830
  10. ^ a b c Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
  11. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier

Derived terms

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Pena.” Etymologically, 21 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/it/pena. Accessed 22 Oct. 2026.

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