1

And the word pent ?

Are they very used in the british/american english ?

Thank you for your help :)

Improve this question
3
  • I can't say I've ever come across the word 'penty' (it has an entry on Urban Dictionary, but that is not a good sign), but it might be a misspelling of 'penny', by an American for whom 'twenty' and 'penny' rhyme.
    – Angelos
    May 26, 2016 at 23:17
  • American here. twenty and penny do not rhyme. When I type in penty, I get an entry in The Free Dictionary which says " cottage (redirected from Penty)" and then goes on to define cottage. When I scroll down to the place where TFD gives literary quotations, penty is clearly a typo for plenty, or is a proper name. TFD does not explain why it made a connection between penty and cottage. And it is possible the OP saw a typo of pentyl.
    – ab2
    May 26, 2016 at 23:55
  • The 'y' is 'of' in Welsh; and what follows describes the location or features of the cottage. Pent -y-groes, Pent-y-cwm, Pent-y-siliogogogoch.
    – Hugh
    May 27, 2016 at 0:44

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

The 'y' is 'of' in Welsh; and what follows describes the location or features of the cottage. Pent -y-groes, Pent-y-cwm, Pent-y-siliogogogoch. There are so many cottages, old summer farm-houses with names like this that it became a nick-name for the white cottages in the Welsh mountains.

Pen Pent doesn't actually mean cottage . I means 'head,' or 'top;' the summer farm houses which became holiday homes were only occupied during the summer months. This move, and style of sheep farming is called transhumance.

Improve this answer
2
  • +1 The Free Dictionary redirecting penty to cottage bothered me, and I am glad you explained it. TFD could have explained the connection! TFD also said: "Related to Penty: plenty". And penty in the quotes they cited clearly meant plenty. Does penty/plenty make sense to you? See the TFD link in my comment under the Q.
    – ab2
    May 27, 2016 at 2:47
  • @ab2 I woke in the middle of the night and realised it was even simpler than that: Pen is head /top/ furthest. And Ty is house. But the furthest houses were the uchaf summer homesteads for transhumance sheep farming mostly now used as holiday cottages. You can see my Welsh is borrowed from George Borrow, and learnt from maps.
    – Hugh
    May 27, 2016 at 9:54

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.